September Portfolio Project: Process of Editing

cellar_door_films on Flickr

As I title my posts, I imply that each passing "day" is a day of actually doing things. There was one day before the first post where I got my ideas, and I've procrastinated most of the week after the first post. As a refresher, my September Portfolio Project is for the common case of people asking what I write. I have also decided to enter my story in the Bainbridge Student Writing Contest under a realer name (Cos, you know, there is a realer life when you power down the computer.).
Yesterday, I finished my zero draft. Being a teenage writer, the very thought of going through an entire draft and ripping it up sounded (and still sounds) horrendous, but I have powered through 1/4 of the three-page "zero draft".

...okay, so that means about 3/4 of a page, but that doesn't mean that's all I did! I drew a TARDIS on my desk, too.

At this point, to cater to contest rules, I have greatly shortened my plot and draft length to three pages. Condensing it all was probably one of the hardest things I've done. Still, I got to the point where all the characters were introduced after the first page, tension rose, and action ensued. There is still quite a bit that I am working on (as in the rising action - so hard in short pieces) and that I'm refining. (Are those things on butterflies' wings...scales?) I'll be sure to get some more to you guys later. However, there's no excerpt today...now that I've edited, everything sounds horrible...