Revising the Vampire, week 2

I keep bumping into this "I can remake the vampire, but better" take and it's getting exhausting. Just yesterday, I was checking out an audiodrama that's been sitting on my feed for close to a year now. I can't remember the title, but it the narrator was a female vampire, on a revenge quest to chase down the vampire who turned her. The "Jack the Ripper" of vampires.

"Make vampires scary again" was the tagline. That was the red flag I ignored, cause I always give the first episode a try, if the trailer and synopsis are compelling enough.

I got halfway through the first episode and I was done. I thought the vampire's true form was mildly interesting, but rolled my eyes at her rant about her make "raping her soul" and depriving her of the joy of...childbirth, among other nonsense. I appreciated the references to Lestat and Bill Compton, but didn't enjoy it, otherwise. Shame, too; I love vampires and would've enjoyed a "fresh" take, but this series brought nothing new or remotely interesting to the table.

But that's enough about a show whose name I can't even remember.

I had quite the busy week, as I decided to go through sixteen chapters, rather than ten. I have eight left to comb through, but those are more recent and not in dire need. Edit, sure, but I'm holding off on that until I have the story straightened out.

I deleted a chapter because I realized it was pointless (leaving me with thirty-four), and expect to delete more words in the future, once I'm in editing mode. My word count went from borderline 66k to a close 64k, and this was adding an additional scene to the very first chapter. I elected to add a few side characters, colleagues and frenemies for my protagonist, Evan.

Oh, and a funny thing happened—my edits earlier this week came out to 8888, an angel number. I'm not really spiritual, but it was still fun to see. I love seeing patterns, and often do; I just don't make a fuss about it most of the time.

I think I might take a break from revising, and revisit the prequel I started recently. I'm mostly done, after all, and I'd like to give myself space before diving deeper into edits. I've covered my main issues, like switching back to the school setting, rather than the public library. My next step will be to go back and add new details and elements, and really shape the story into its ideal form.

This is the hard part, and I expect to take my time and really smooth out the wrinkles. Maybe even delete another chapter or two. I already have one in mind. My final word count won't hit 100k, I'm sure, but 80k would be nice.

Anyway, I don't have a proper snippet this week, but I wanted to show off this line for a rather intimate moment between Evan and Svenja. It's funny, really. I deleted one sex scene earlier this week because it served little purpose, other than to show Svenja in a vulnerable position, but this new one is...quite the improvement, without losing that same edge:

They released her thumb, only vaguely aware of sucking it and the surrounding digits, drawing blood from her fingertips. “Svenja?”