Writing “Anori”: 4th Draft Notes

Some statistics after completing the 4th draft of Anori:

Time: 10 days (60 hours total)Screenshot (180)

Pages: Edited 13% of the text; 99,867 to 86,742 words

Problem Word: Suddenly, edited from 67 instances to 19suddenly

Problem Phrases: “Falling forward”, “it was there and then not”

Music: Fireworks (Tragically Hip), soundtrack during process, repeated 300 times.FinalHip (1)

How many ‘Suddenlys’ are too many ‘Suddenlys’?

I’ve suddenly realized that I’ve developed an obsession with ‘suddenly’. There’s too much suddenly happening in the book: He turned too suddenly. She moved across the room suddenly.  It was suddenly dark. Suddenly, I realized. I felt that very suddenly. It’s a good word and everything – it really is – but my relationship with it has degenerated into something rather unhealthy. It’s a dependency, a crutch. And so I’ve put myself through a mini-intervention, used the dreaded search function and deleted and replaced. Now I’m suddenly down – damn it! – just down to, just down – no suddenly! – down to 21 for the book. I think that’s a good number. I mean, how many suddenlys do I really need? I suppose I could get it down to 15 or even 10, but what’s the point? It’s not like I have to go cold turkey on this. Right? (It suddenly got very quiet.)