I just completed one of the most valuable editing exercises ever (courtesy of Donald Maass' workshop at SiWC).
I printed out the book.
I shuffled all the pages.
I made sure no page remained in sequential order.
I edited each page as an individual entity. Ruthless! Ruthless, I say!
Result: 7000 fewer words and a tighter book. Hopefully, tension on every page (OK, maybe I missed 3 pages).
Added result: I've decided to embark on a bit of a plot re-working since I decided my heroine is not active enough at the end.
Hi Kat,
What a cool idea! You should post this on Kidcrit. What a great way to edit objectively.
Helene B (from Kidcrit)