Woe is Me

Have you ever picked around at something so much it lost its appeal? Read it way too many times for it to make any sense? No, unless you’re a writer, probably not.

I’ve been working on a book lately that I wrote years and years ago but never tidied up for possible publication. The characters faded away but now they’re back in my head so I figure it must be their turn again. Only the more I poke around in their story, the less I like it.

For starters, it is way too long, about 20, 000 words over the potential publisher’s upper limit. That means I need to cut 45-50 pages or so. Yeah. That’s a hell of a lot. It’s not easy, deciding which tidbits of their lives are nonessential.

And then, since this is an erotic novel, there’s the sex. Lots and lots and lots of sex. It’s beginning to seem never-ending which has me wondering if there’s too much sex. Can there be too much sex in an erotic tale? Perhaps that’s what I should be cutting even though all they’re doing truly is possible.

Oh yes, that’s something that must be kept in mind when writing sex. Is what you have the characters attempting really doable. Yep, that takes a bit of the fun out of writing it. Even more when you have to go back and read it over and over again when doing major cutting such as this.

I’m ready to start hacking it to bits or maybe even telling them it’s not their turn after all and working on something else instead. Some days being a writer is definitely more fun than others. This is not one of them.