Sunday, May 30, 2021

Editing Takes F O R E V E R





Seriously. I've been working on the new edit for this book I'm on for so long. I keep thinking it's going to get easier, but it never does. I make goals that I feel are generous, but don't actually finish by then because I've discovered a previously unknown huge issue that needs a complete rewrite. It might just be this story though because I don't think I had this issue on this scale with my previous book. 

The one I'm working on, Shadow Warrior, is the first book I wrote. I think that necessitates a lot more editing since I was learning all the things when I was first writing it, and have since learned so many more things. And you can tell. Will this story ever be finished? Sometimes I wonder. This is the fourth major edit of this book, and I thought for sure that this edit pass would be the last major revision of this piece and it would be finished by the end of April. I'm probably not going to make the end of May (unless tomorrow is extraordinarily productive), but I'm so very close now. I should have this pass done and ready for beta readers in the next couple of weeks. However, I'm not optimistic that this is the last major pass anymore. I think there's going to be one more big one before I get down to line level stuff. 

We'll see. Maybe my beta readers will tell me I'm crazy and too hard on myself--which is definitely a thing. My ultimate goal for this story is to be ready to submit to agents by the end of the year, so that still seems possible. Hopefully.

Once that one is out with readers, I'm going to do one last editing pass to Child of Blessing and send it back out as well. The beginning wasn't doing what it needed to do, and a couple other scenes were problematic for another reason, so I'm going to fix those too. Anyway, that seems totally doable, and I'm looking forward to finally being finished with that one again.

After that (or somewhere concurrently in there), I'm going to finish the first draft of my latest story. I'm having a lot of fun writing it, and it feels so much more solid right out of my brain than the others. I can't wait to get feedback on this one from my beta readers this year!

If I get all that finished, I plan to make some decisions for Cruising the Cosmos, my middle grade series, and get the first book edited. Then brainstorm several of the next book ideas and perhaps draft one of those. Or perhaps I'll draft my YA alien one. Those are my top contenders at the moment, but I have a lot to finish before I'm allowed to start on those.

Anyway, wish me luck. Hopefully you'll get to read one or all of these someday. They certainly keep me busy!