Surely this will be the last time the book requires any further editing. I've been so thorough this time, rephrasing every sentence, every individual word, I didn't like.
I revised my description of Mai in Chapter 43 to be more precise, it now reads: (changes in bold)
"Okay, for Mai, she's a lot like Honoka, except she prefers art over science. Also it's stunningly unlike any other Precure how she really hates and demolishes her foes. Honoka's probably the more beautiful of the two, in face and voice, but I always preferred Mai's personality." I narrated.
I switched who gave birth to whom in two cases so that the children better match their parents. Now the sniper Makina gives birth to the sniper Natty Bumpo and the assassin Rose gives birth to the assassin Primrose (even their names match!).
The arranged marriage wife Kobeni now gives birth to the arranged marriage wife Suzu from 'In This Corner of the World.' And rounding it all out the superpowered fist fighter Urara gives birth to the superpowered fist fighter Shichika. Yay for mother-child relationships that make sense and bring out the waifu's character!
Not all mother-child relationships are that sensible in the book, but when they are that sensible it would be a sin not to connect them. It boggles my mind that Rose didn't give birth to Primrose all this time. They were made for each other. Well, it's due to things like this I keep editing the book.
The edits continued all the way to Chapter 57, changing an 'into' into an 'in,' and an 'even' into an 'also.' Basically I had to edit the story from beginning to end, though strangely the first three chapters and the last two were perfect and didn't need editing. Now I just need those middle 54 chapters to cooperate too. . .
By waging world wars 'just' and 'even' I managed to get the usage down from 601 'justs' and 592 'evens' to 591 'justs' and 585 'evens.' A glorious victory if I do say so myself. In each case I replaced the word, phrase or whole sentence with something that sounds better and makes more sense. Some sentences sounded so much better afterwards it's like they were singing to me, like this one:
"Couldn't you stick to "thanks Kaname, I love you!" for just one day?" Kaname shouted angrily.
(Note the sentence still has a just in it, so just imagine how bad it was before now.)
Altogether the editing this time was very hard work, but it also meant that it was very rewarding. I'm satisfied. I have 99% confidence that I caught all the errors and fixed them this time around, so my 47th reread really will be a placid, quiet victory tour. Readers can rest assured the book is complete and start reading now, there's no further reason to wait:
Even though this was my 46th time the story was sexier than ever. This is the best book ever and the most erotic book ever, and these two facts are not unrelated.
It's interesting tracing the changes in Christopher's mindset as he travels through the phases of life. In the beginning he's full of doubts and worries. Later he's feeling crushed with endless responsibilities. When he figures out how to handle things he gets bored. Then he finds God and starts enjoying the deeper meaning embedded in his actions and roles, becoming more reflective and abstract and less concerned with immediate events. Finally he stops thinking about himself and dedicates his energy to helping those who aren't as happy as he is.
Obviously these phases are permeable, Christopher can be selfish at the end of the book and reflective at the beginning, but I'm just remembering trends, like paint strokes that overlap and bleed into each other. It feels like as life changed he changed with it.
By the end of the book Christopher has gone from youth to old age, not just because he's over 600 years old, but because he's experienced every stage of life, one stair step at a time. It's a beautiful journey.
As far as I can tell all the waifus get a chance to shine. I didn't feel the need to add a segment so that a new girl could chime in about anything. Of course some shine more than others, but they all shine so brilliantly in the moment they are shining that I think the reader should come away from the book loving them all, understanding why chapter 1 chose those specific girls and agreeing with Chris. You just can't top these waifus. You can't top the life they gave Christopher, and thus you can't top the love and gratitude you feel for them for doing so. Not only is this the best book ever, and the most erotic ever, it's also the most love engendering ever. If you came into this book with crushes on exactly 0 girls, I'd expect anyone to close the back page with at least 50.
This is the seventh time I've read and edited '100 Waifus' this year. I've actually read and edited the book more in previous years, when the book was still fresh and red hot from the forge, but it's a lot more times than I thought it would take this late in. I ended up dedicating the entire year to improving this book. I'm ready to put down my pen.
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