Open-Heart Surgery with a Chainsaw: Deep Edits

This was the title of a panel I participated in at Balticon and, let me tell you, truer words were never spoken. Cutting deep into your manuscript is like cutting into your own flesh. Most editing is like scratches or paper cuts, but deep edits—thousands of words—are much, much more painful.

I’ve had to do truly deep edits twice now. The first time was for Scimitar Moon. The original manuscript weighed in at 165,000 words. I, of course, thought it was fine that way. However, its acceptance by...