Cats As Editors

Never trust a cat when it comes to editing advice.

Seriously. They are no help at all. Okay, my old cat Edgar who is now frolicking through the proverbial mouse fields of days gone by (I know that isn’t proverbial, but it sounds nice) might have been helpful. He knew how to slice and dice. He would have been an awesome editor. When he purred, you felt like all that work finally paid off. I digress. My remaining cat, M, however is not editor material. Whatsoever.

You see, right now I have a scene that needs some paring down. Originally it was two scenes that were repetitious. Now it is one scene with a whopping amount of backstory tossed in and around the ‘issue’. I need to only have things in this scene (2nd scene in the book) that add to the whole of the book and propel the story forward. Problem is it feels like everything and nothing adds to the whole or propels the story. Make sense? Make cat doesn’t think it does either.

You see, she sits in my lap and purrs. The whole time. What kind of help is that? I need some tough love and she is gushing over EVERYthing. Her version of being tough on me involves laying on my arm so it’s hard to type. I need her to growl at the parts that can go. But no, occasionally she nuzzles her cute little head into my typing hand.

“Fantastic! I love what you’ve written!”

So see? Cats can’t be trusted as an editor. The only thing worse would having a dog as an editor. That kind of over-enthusiastic, adoring, unconditional love for everything I’ve ever written would not really help me grow as a writer.

“Love it, now let’s go for a walk, my ADHD is kicking in.” 

Oh, hang on! She just started washing her bum, that must mean I do need to cut those last 1000 words. Oh yep. Definitely. She just braced herself to really work it. Ah yes, and now that I’ve cut the scene, she’s cuddled in next to me again. Maybe she’ll make a good editor after all.