The Editing Process
I am so excited that I wrote the first draft of my novel, but now I have 144k words to revise. I wish it were as simple as doing some line edits for grammar and punctuation, but that will actually be the very last thing I do.
I have already worked with a developmental editor, though she only read about half of my book as I sent it to her when it was about at the 60k word mark.
This type of editor looks at the story with a wide lens. They evaluate the pacing, structure, character development, voice and style. I received three pages of feedback from this edit. She was very encouraging and it helped my confidence that there were parts of my story she felt strongly about, though she did tell me to cut the prologue which I had spent hours writing and rewriting. Ah! After I wrote more of the story I saw what she saw. My readers don't need hints or setups in a prologue if my writing is strong enough. I will say that the prologue served its purpose for me as an author though. It required me to really dig deep and get to know my protagonist and her motives, so now I view it as an exercise in prewriting. She also told me to reduce the number of POVs I had going on which also took a lot of thought and planning, but I did manage to do this.
Next I have line edits and then a copy edit. In a line edit I will work to eliminate anything redundant, improve word choice & sentence structure, and make sure the tense is consistent. I am telling my story in a third person past tense point of view. The dialogue is in first person, but the tag lines are always in the past tense (e.g. said instead of says).
One of my favorite suggestions I've seen from other writers on Instagram is that during the editing stage you must make every word fight for its right to be on the page. In the first half of the book I know I was very wordy and as I learned how to tighten up my lines the second half of my novel reflects my current skill level. It's time to go back to the start and reduce the word count in the beginning.
For the copy edit I will dig into the technical stuff like spelling and grammar, punctuation marks, margins, indentations etc.
Another thing that contributes to my edit is getting feedback from beta readers. One of my aunts is going to be reading my story in its rough state to do something similar as the developmental editor. I am very nervous, but excited, to let another person read my story. I know she is the perfect person as she will not crush my creative confidence. I hope to get the print out of my manuscript to her in the next month or so.
I have been stuck for months on what I should use for the title of my book. Since the beginning, One Song Away was what I thought could work. It didn't feel perfect though because I wanted a title that signified something for all of my protagonists, and One Song Away really applied to Hannah and Charlie, but not so much to Paige and Ryan. Before Dreams Come True popped into my head just weeks ago, and I love it! This is fitting for not only Charlie and Hannah who want to make it in the music industry, but also for Paige and Ryan and their desire to have a family. I'm going to sit with it a few more weeks and see if it still feels right, but it's the closest I've felt to having made up my mind. My book really is about all the life that has to be lived before your dreams come true.
