I have to say that working with an editor has been wonderful so far. Two weeks ago I received my first editor's letter. This was a three page general thoughts on Sendek. It contained a section on The Most Important, Things to Address, and Other Things I Noticed. Each section contained questions that came up as she read, concerns, and some of the things I was doing right.
And you know what? Nothing made me cry! I was prepared to cry, but it looks like those years of hard work paid off. Don't get me wrong, there is still quite a bit of polishing to do, but it's all stuff I'm excited about.
Because of this first letter--and the questions, concerns, and suggestions Amie made--I feel that creative buzz again. Ideas are floating around and solidifying into scenes.
Nothing major is changing. However, I have the opportunity to deepen certain aspects of the story, add some more depth to Talia's character and the stakes throughout her journey. The best part is that most of the places where Amie wanted to know more are things that I already knew the answers to. It's all part of the back story I cut at some point in time.
Now I need to find the right way to sprinkle some of it back in. And that's exciting!
The goal is this:
Not this:
What tricks do you use to make sure you edit the back half as well as the front half?
In the future I'm going to try the end to beginning method of revision. This way you have to concentrate on each sentence on it's own because you can't get caught up in the story.
Just like in the picture - little sprinkles here and there.
ReplyDeleteSee, working with your publisher's editor isn't so bad. Mine didn't want any huge changes either, just made lots of little suggestions.
Funny how these little suggestions are making the novel so much better!
DeleteHey! That's good news. Glad there weren't major revisions in store that made you cringe--or cry. :)
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteI don't have any tricks. Just lots of blood and sweat!
ReplyDeleteThat's probably what works the best!
DeleteVery cool, Charity! Amie is awesome :)
ReplyDeleteOH boy. I think I'm guilty of paying attention to the front half of a manuscript more than the back half. In order to get around this, I usually just have to force myself to stop fidgeting with earlier chapters and dive straight into the later ones.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you, but by the last half of the book I'm writing like I read--a mile a minute. Its a challenge to make myself slow down, pull away from the story and actually look at what I'm writing. :)
DeleteOMG I'm so excited for you. I'm still waiting for mine and I really don't know what to expect but a bunch of red marks and deletions. LOL. Nightmare material.
ReplyDeleteThat's so exciting, Charity. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the process so far. To try to make sure I focus on the back half of the story, I had my beta readers already provide feedback on the front half before I edited the back half. That helped me become more critical and see my writing based on what I thought their comments might be.
ReplyDelete