I’ve started editing my latest WIP this week. I finished up the first draft of AURUM on July 4th, and have spent the last five weeks focused on getting Destiny Blues published, preparing GLAMOUR for publication later this fall, reviewing my writing goals for the year and writing (and submitting) short stories. By the time I’ve finished a draft of my manuscript, I’m pretty tired of living in it. Letting the manuscript cool off for a few weeks is a great way to gain some distance on the story, so that when I go back and take a second look at it, it is easier to spot the holes. In the past few weeks, more ideas about the story have come to me and I’ve jotted them down. Now, I can’t wait to start working on them.
I’ve got mixed emotions when it comes to editing. Over the last couple of years I’ve made a concerted effort to improve my skills in editing, and I do feel much more comfortable with my own editing ability now. I’ve also learned that my early drafts tend to be far too lean, in terms of sensory description, setting, and telling details; so as I go back through my manuscript, I’m looking at each scene as a whole, and adding far more than I’m taking out. For me, the 2nd draft is like re-writing the whole novel all over again. It took me four months to edit the first draft of Destiny Blues, two months for GLAMOUR, and my goal for AURUM is three to four weeks. Then I’ll send it out to early readers while I start in on the follow-on to Destiny Blues.
Busy, busy, busy.
