No more procrastination.
If I want my next novel up for sale in August, I have to finish my edits.
So what’s all this on my dining room table you ask.
Well the stuff spread out is my current novel Each chapter times 3, in some cases times 6 (depending on how many proofreaders have seen it). The stuff in the stack is from my first novel The Problem with Jake and it’s young adult rewrite The Trouble with Jake.
The week after next, I start a new pile, as my editing group and I go through my new novel – working title – “Kiere”.
Still confused about my dining room table?
Well, after I finish my first draft, I let my novel sit for a few months. Then I got through it chapter by chapter and write a point form list of what happens. I find this gives me the chance to pick out story flaws and repeated information. Since I’m a pantser, I often don’t find out much of the backstory until I’m well into the novel. One of my major tasks during editing is to bring that information forward so the reader understands where I’m taking them (because honestly, when I wrote the draft, I had no idea myself).
Once this is done I re-write my book based on my notes.
The I submit my chapters in 20 page chunks to my editing group. They tear apart my story, its logic, science, emotional connections, wording, descriptions, dialogue and everything else they can find to improve. The sessions are grueling and at the end I have three copies of my chapters with three different sets of notes. That explains the mess on my table.
Now I sort through all the comments, decide which ones work and which ones don’t and incorporate the ones I need to. I figure it will take me at least a few days working full time to complete this edit before I send my manuscript off to another set of readers for their input.
Seriously, writing the book is the easy part!