Mommy Writes Fantasy: A Writing Blog

Editing Struggles

+J.M.J.+ 9.15.16 +Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows+

Editing Struggles

This past month, I've been frantically working on edits for my upcoming release of "Kingdom." This is a book I've had floating around in my head for about 7 or 8 years. It's gone through about as many changes and cast cuts and character name switches in that time span. I finally completed the first draft of it about a year ago. The writing came easy. The editing? Not so much.

This being technically my sophomore novel, that might be contributing to the problem. I'll contrast this present editing experience to the one before it.

The first novel I finished left me on a high, so when I dove into edits a month after it finished, I was still flying on that energy. And I completed it around the holiday season, so those spirits of warmth (and lots of Starbucks coffee from the gift cards I got) helped me plow through the first round of edits in about a month and a half. It had taken me from August of that year to about February of the next to draft and edit a book. A whole book, and not just any book--the very first one I'd ever contemplated writing, which at that point had gone through dozens of changes and plot twists and world-building exercises to try to get it just right. It had taken me just about 8 years to get that one nailed down enough to complete a draft, and how amazing it was to finish it after all that time!

Contrast that with this experience. I had about the same experience with the actual drafting of this novel. It was a shorter novel and a bit of a simpler one, as I wasn't juggling 2 different protagonist's POVs every other chapter. I had one main character and several important side characters that VERY occasionally had their own POV snippet to let the readers in on the background plot. It was fairly easy to map out their character arcs, and as I'd lived with these characters for about 8 years, their voices were already clear to me. I didn't have to hunt for what they'd do in certain situations. I knew what they looked like. I knew what they sounded like. I knew what they all wanted and how things worked in their kingdom.

Then...another minor character slipped in unannounced. She was well-liked by beta readers, and I do love her dearly, but she has created quite the stumbling block as far as going back and strengthening her role in the story. I've had to rework her entire relationship to the protagonist in order to bring her more to the forefront (as she may very well star in the sequel).

There was also the matter of the minitagonist in the story, the protagonist's father, who starts off well-meaning and responsible but ends up crazed for power and in despair by the end of the story. I had to try to include more snippets of his fall from grace throughout the story (and I still need to go back and add some of these even now), as betas complained that his transformation by the end of the novel seemed sudden.

I do have to say this is my first editing process that has been under a deadline, and my first multiple-round edit. Many rewrites were done within the past several months, including a complete rewrite of the last several chapters (which I'm almost afraid to look at, as they were written hurriedly and may be somewhat skeletal). I've got 2 more weeks until my self-imposed end-of-September deadline for completing edits and cleaning up my manuscript (though after reviewing what I still have left to do I've allowed myself the first week of October to format and do proofreading/compiling on the whole thing). I've got the whole of the third and final act left to edit, and perhaps a scene or two to add in.

I'm sad that I can't give it another thorough read-through before I submit it, especially since I've been so close to it these last few weeks. I might be able to sneak one in before sending it off, but honestly, it would probably do more harm than good at this point. The week that I format it, I'm going to put it into a text-to-speech program to catch typos and that'll probably be the last I see of it before it goes off to the presses.

All that being said, I do feel that my story is much stronger since drafting it. I only hope that this deadline hasn't forced me to leave anything half-baked, but there's only so much tweaking and editing I can do before it starts to become unhealthy to look at it anymore. Besides, I'm revving to go on my other projects I've sidelined because of this editing. It'll free up some creative energy and help me feel like I have more time in my schedule to spend on working up my drawing skills and brainstorming the second book in my epic fantasy trilogy (the follow-up to the very first novel I finished).

I'm looking forward to being done with it, although I'll miss working on these characters. I won't stop visiting them though--my alpha reader and I write cross-over stories between our characters, so that keeps us in touch with old friends who we would otherwise not get to interact with once their stories are published.

That's been my editing process over the past few weeks. 2 weeks until the finish line, and then one more week of final formatting and technical tweaks, and my sophomore novel will be sent off to the publisher to await formatting, a lovely cover, and launch day in December!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my humble blog! I love being able to share my experiences with other writers.

AlyCatAuthor

Tell me about your editing process. Any woes or troubles you'd like to share?