Back to editing my manuscript...

After first draft, revisions, discussions with a bunch of teenage characters in my living room, rewrites of scenes, more revisions, more discussions with aggravated characters, rereads and more revisions and a little crittering break - 

I had to get back to my manuscript.

No was not an option.

But I'm definitely not ready to let go.

copyright Debbie Ridpath OHI at www.inkygirl.com

I hope I will - eventually.

In absence of my own critters I'm on my own and dwelling in the hell of cut.

Since I won't bore you with details,

 I thought I share some of my favorite editing quotes.

They always make me smile - before I crash face down again.

Enjoy!

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
― Dr. Seuss

 “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft 

 “I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it.”
― Don Roff

 “I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
― Shannon Hale

 “Edit your manuscript until your fingers bleed and you have memorized every last word. Then, when you are certain you are on the verge of insanity...edit one more time!”
― C.K. Webb

 “I edit my own stories to death. They eventually run and hide from me.”
― Jeanne Voelker

 “It’s easy to see what to do once it’s already been done. The difficult time is before it’s to be done, and while you’re doing it. This is the difference between writing and editing. 
”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book Has No Title 

 “It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.”
― C.J. Cherryh

 “Your first draft is a petulant teenager, sure it knows best, adamant that its Mother is wrong. Your third draft has emerged from puberty, realising that its Mother was right about everything.”
― Angeline Trevena

“We never end up with the book we began writing. Characters twist it and turn it until they get the life that is perfect for them. A good writer won't waste their time arguing with the characters they create...It is almost always a waste of time and people tend to stare when you do!”
― C.K. Webb

I am sure we will have discussions about the last two tonight. Oh well...