When you think that the hard part of writing a book is over you get hit on the head by the editing fairy. She can give you a quick to rap you on the knuckles with her grammar ruler. Or a massive bump on the back of your head with self-doubt.
Road signs in Wonderland. I first started the editing process on Into the Fire in the summer of 2017. Needless to say I almost had a break down of massive preparations. I tried going chapter to chapter starting from with the first chapter.
I would like to share some hard-earned knowledge on that first trip down the editing rabbit hole.
1)Make sure to have a great support group and/or some awesome motivational quotes, you’re going to need them. Here are a few of mine.
The first draft of anything is shit. Ernest Hemingway
You can always fix crap. You can’t fix a blank page.Christina Dodo
First drafts don’t have to be perfect. They just have to be written. Unknown.
2)Be patient, print stuff out, read out loud.
3)Watch the pros. Read what others are doing and what they have learned.
4)Jump around when looking at chapters. What are you talking about Shirley? This is the key to my revision plan for Into the Fire. I started to look at the last chapter, instead of the first. I wanted to spend as much time on the last chapter as I did the first. I started to realize this would be important to do when I started to plan 9 books in the series. Look at the first chapter, move onto the next to last chapter. Then back to the third chapter, continuing on in this fashion till I have looked at each chapter in the book. This keeps me from getting stuck in my rose-tinted thoughts about what I wanted to do with the story. Instead I see what is actually going on in the chapter and scenes.
5)Cut certain words from your text. You can find lists of all the words to cut from your work, but I am sticking to a few. Very, totally, really, ly words, and sadly just. I realized that I use the word just more than I should.
6), I want to check each character in the book, besides the main characters and protagonist. Check each characters introduction. Their descriptions, arcs, and plot ties to other books in the series.
If you would like to learn more about what my Editing Fairy inspired me to do. Check out my blog posts on revision and my upcoming ebook on How to Master the Book-end Revision.
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