You Know It Needs Editing When...

So I'm reading my EF aloud to my mother. Yes, granted I'd only gone over it once for the first edits. But it's a funny feeling when you read over something you've written yourself and find yourself saying: "What they saw was...*pause*...uhh, wait...what?"

For me it was the funniest thing when I realized I wasn't sure what the text, of which I was the creator, was saying. That's got to be the point where it dawns on one that there's still some work to do.

Actually, it was then that I realized what a fellow writer friend of mine meant when he commented that "it's a little hard to follow who's talking all the time. Suggest substituting fewer nominal references with pronouns." Yeah, funny thing was I got the exact same thing when I was reading. Only thing was, on one or two bits, I didn't know what it was saying at all. Of course after a few obscure pauses I was able to remember who was talking and about what, so I was alright. But I did get what it must have been like for someone without the privilege of that insight.

But I know I was correct about something: at first I thought it might be best for me to re-write the whole of Electrostatic Fantasy and make some major plot changes. But the more I carry on with my "tweaking," the more I know that all it needs is a tune up and not an overhaul.

My initial estimates on schedule are that the final draft should be finished by October. I'm also expecting word length to end up at 55k, although, admittedly, I was hoping for at least 60k =/