One of the negatives of the Word version I’m using is that the word count on the docx. stops showing past 99K. Makes it difficult to figure out where you are. Where I am right now is at 75,000 words on the newest version of Grace, which is still 10,000 words more then the complete manuscript which topped out at 108K.

I’m nearing the first climax, which is 2/3rds through the story. There is a reason for that. It’s because I’m stubborn. I write the way I want to write. I’ve tried writing more mainstream, but if that makes me miserable, why bother? It’s very likely my novels and novellas will never be a success, never mind a commercial smash, but that’s not why I write in the first place.

A quick blurb: This is not a light and fluffy spanking story. Boy meets girl. Girl gets spanked. Wedding bells and a baby nine months later. This spanking story will make you cry, laugh and scream. It will make you angry, sad and aroused, but it will never make you comfortable.

I’ve mentioned the plot device before in various posts, but not in much detail. It is also why this manuscript has given me fits for ten years. Did I mention as well that I’m stubborn? A dirty little secret about writing is that the words are not static nor dead on the page/screen. Every writer hears the characters talking inside, they often drive the narrative to places the writer never thought of going. But the experiences, the traumas, the joys and sorrows of your life find their way to the page/screen as well. Authors are not the words we write but neither are the words we write not based upon our lives.

So: Plot device.

Character 1 is present day male Dom

Character 2 is present day female sub

Character 3 is past day female sub [title character]

Character 4 is past day female switch

The narrative is told from the viewpoint of #1 in the present, relaying his past with #3 and #4 to #2. In the past, #3 and #4 tell their stories to the reader which sometimes but not always involve #1. The past and present are 8 years apart through the climax -see above- then shortly afterwards, the past collides with the present.

What the reader sees is the complete picture, but the pasts of #3 and #4 are much worse than #1 ever knew. #2 wants to know about #1’s past because she also has a hidden past that #1 doesn’t know about. When #1 reveals what he did to #3 and #4 that precipitates a crisis by triggering #1, whereby the D/s that #1 and #2 are doing, screeches to a halt, but not for good.

The novel does with end with HEAFN [that’s Happily Ever After For Now] because I’m a sap at heart. Love me a good romance.

It certainly feels as though many of us have been [and continue to be] under house arrest. I suppose we should all be grateful that tracking ankle bracelets are not mandated as are face masks. My title though is about my current editing of my spanking novel Grace. There are several dirty little secrets about the conflict between writing and editing.

The first is that editing never, ever reduces the word count. [Unless entire pages of plot are discarded for the sake of expediency. Which will happen soon in my novel.] Of the original word count of 108,000 I have edited the first 41,000 words. However, the current word count stands at 51,000. Thus, a net increase of 10,000 words in a manuscript that was too long and wordy already. *sigh*

The second secret about editing is that it is never done. Ever. This is at least the twentieth time I’ve gone through my manuscript and as mentioned in my head-hopping post, I’m still finding POV errors from ten years ago. And, since I’ve switched back and forth from 1st person to 3rd person past and present who knows how many times, the he/I and she/I pronouns are all over the map. As a part B of never-ending editing, every single book I have ever read; new or old, has editing errors in the text. Doesn’t matter how famous the author or how prestigious the publisher, there are always errors in grammar and punctuation.

The third secret is this: Editing sucks. Which is why authors turn it over to editors as soon as possible. Authors write. Editors edit. Even though every single word an author writes is perfect and editors never stop trying to ruin a brilliant story with ‘recommendations’, it’s a relationship, that in the end, creates a better story. Not matter how many times an author states they are halfway home.