That's One

I want my novel in the hands of a publisher this year. That'll require, first, the complete re-write that is in process (it's a first pass re-write whose sole purpose is to de-suck the thing).

The novel is about 400 pages long; and as of yesterday, I had completed 250 pages of desuckifying. Re-writing is infinitely faster than writing, though (especially since it mostly consists of taking crap out, as opposed to creatively generating new crap). I can do, give or take, 4 or 5 pages of re-write in an evening. At that rate -- if I actually keep my lazy ass in gear -- I can finish in a couple of months, tops.

That would be awesome, just to have a workable, largely decrapped draft.

That will be awesome, 'cause I'm gonna do it (he said, with only the slightest tinge of irony coloring his words). Last night I got through 6 pages. My goal is to force myself to touch it every single day. That's how I got it written in the first place -- working on it every single day. I did it then; I can do it now.

The next trick is to make sure I keep my whole goal in sight, and not to set a goal of only a first pass re-write. I will need -- at a minimum -- to rework it twice. After the de-icking process, I want to go through the entire thing concentrating solely on dialogue. I hate poorly written dialogue.

After the dialogue fix, I will go back one more time (hopefully that'll be the last fix) and give it a spit and polish. All of that seems infinitely do-able this year, and that's my toppest majorest goal.