Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? II

[Imladris]

Nuru, on religion, this is my advice: Keep it vague, don't name the religion as that will probably be a turn off. I don't know much about the Catholic religion, but keep their customs in the story and if a Catholic comes upon your story, he can mentally smile as he recognizes them. And if one isn't a Catholic, one can look at the story and appreciate how noble, etc, the characters are.

As for second drafts, I read a rule once: Second draft = first draft minus ten percent . I've found that this is extremely easy to do and the best part is that you don't even loose a bunch of the core important stuff or the stuff that you've come to love. After you do your own editing of the ten percent, then have an editor read it and then you'll cut off even more fat from the flavourful meat.

Also, before any editing takes place, put the manuscript in a drawer and just let it rest for a few weeks. That way it will be fresh and you can easily see parts that won't flow, etc.