I ‘finished’ the latest edit of TFR today.  Finished as in got to the end of the book fixing passive voice, pov issues and a few grammatical issues.  I also chopped over 16000 words from the manuscript, which I think is pretty damn impressive.

I also fixed an unusual problem that I don’t expect a lot of writers will have to deal with.  The book takes place in Canada, and the main characters are both pretty young, so I had to make a decision whether or not to use the metric system for lengths, distances and weights.  I opted to go for it in almost every case, though in some, I went to a more generic term instead of an actual measurement.

What I expect to happen is that if the book is published in the US, I will need to go back and find all the instances of meters and kilograms and swap them back to imperial.  I prefer writing in imperial because the notations are less territorial.  You don’t notice the word foot, but you notice the word meter when it is frequently used.

I did leave two chapters unwritten that I must now go back and write, which should add between 3000-4000 words back into the book.  Right now, I’m sitting at about 77,700 words.  The 3000 words is about right.  I skipped writing them at the time because I had a little bit of writer’s block, plus I wanted to figure out what would get cut in the rest of the book so I could use those chapters to fill any gaps.  I definitely fear creating wedge chapters – ones  that are obviously pushed in after the fact – but they are in places that need more content, so I think, with a little planning, I can make it work.

Once those chapters are written, I’ll let the book sit for a few days, then do another quick read through, and send it to be printed for my readers to review.  Should be right on target for the end of September.