“The Country of the Young” is now, I’d say, about 50% of the way along tobeing completely revised. I spread out all the pages in order, stacking page 1s together, page 2s, page 3s, all the way to page 33s. Then I stacked them and went through each one. That was the line edits.
After that, I read over the crits, had dinner, and read the crits again, making a list of points I thought sensible or semi-sensible. There were three kinds of points:
- Yes, must do.
- This is something I should at least consider.
- This is something to think about once I reread this thing a few days after other revisions are finished.
I’ve gotten through the line edits, cut one scene and replaced it with another, rearranged some bits, cut some bits, and made fair number of things somewhat clearer, while, I think, sketching just enough of the heretofore unseen underbelly (and the underbelly’s backstory) to make things that crucial bit clearer. I think.
So now what I have left are the maybe-points (#2) and the things to consider in terms of overarching effect, etc (#3).
I also need to ask around and see whether I can’t get a cool new Korean neologism for the English “methuselah”, as in, someone who has received life-extension treatment and is neo-young. I originally went with “장수 노�?¸” (long-lived old people) but didn’t like it, and I think “ë¶ì¬ì?¸” (immortal people) sounds a little too, well, non-SFnal. I know, 99.5% of my readers won’t give a damn. For this neologism, they don’t matter — I want to make that 0.5% of readers go, damn, he got it. And since my Korean just isn’t that good, I shall have to ask around. The hard bit is that most people in any language aren’t used to inventing neologisms, so… maybe I’ll have to settle for something out of a comic book?
I dunno, actually, I’d be glad of something out of a comic book. Anything that works, I suppose.
As for my submissions goal for the month, it puts me at 50% right now: I have one story submitted, and one (which I’m planning to submit electronically) getting relatively close to being ready to send out. I have time enough to get one more story up and out, maybe two if I really focus.
But for now, it’s bedtime.