August 3: Update on the book

One (not preferred) way to edit for word length

I have gone through the five main chapters of the book draft for a second time and have cut another 20,000 words (in total I have cut about 45,000 words). This round of cuts was not yet very difficult--I thought it would be harder--but I am getting to the point where I cannot cut much more from each individual section. 

The five main chapters--I have not yet written the introduction or conclusion--now total 108,594 words, and the total word count needs to be around 100,000.

I have probably reached the stage where I need to cut entire sections of people/texts. Bede the Venerable and David Flusser seem the first two most likely options at this point.

You can see the entire list of interpreters here. Feel free to offer advice, if you wish, to dgowler@emory.edu about sections to cut!

The current word counts per chapter are:

Introduction (not written)
Chapter 1:  22289
Chapter 2:  21913
Chapter 3:  21096
Chapter 4:  20343
Chapter 5:  22953
Conclusion (not written)

I'm stepping away from the book this week and am completing the chapter for the book on characterization I mentioned previously, as well as starting a couple book reviews. I will return to the next round of editing (or perhaps writing the Introduction and Conclusion) after the semester begins; much work also remains for getting ready for the fall semester at Emory. 

I am pleased with the progress on the book, and I am actually extremely pleased with a number of sections--the section on Emily Dickinson is one of the better parts, for example, but there are many others, I think. Hopefully, other people will find the book both helpful and interesting.