Last week, I finally finished the chief revisions on “Killing the Immortals,” nearly four months after I wrote the last words of the rough draft. I have no idea if “Six weeks to write and four months for editing” will be a common occurrence for me (It is my first book, so my experience level is a tad low), but that’s how this one went. So, here we are now, getting near the end, and I’m sort of in reflecting mode on how it’s all gone.
I’ve learned a lot during the past four months about my own writing (I use the word “just” way too damn much) and what’s effective for me when it comes to evaluating what I wrote. It’s not easy to step back from a personal project of this sort of length (88K words), that you put so much work into, and evaluate it fairly, in a way that allows you to actually see the warts, recognize them, root them out, and smash them into a million pieces.
Here are the three biggest lessons I’ve taken away from going through the four-month editing gauntlet with this book:
- I definitely need a professional editor (and you almost certainly do too)
As I wrote the first draft, I considered the possibility of not spending money on a professional editor. I had done a lot of prep, and I thought that was keeping the story pretty tight. I have a decade-plus of experience editing my own writing, and I’m a near expert on grammar. Between me and my team of beta readers, I thought that might be enough to get me to publication without blowing my budget. After seeing the editor’s notes, though, I know exactly why I hired her, and my story is unquestionably better for it. She found little wrinkles I never would have seen, and neither did my beta readers. And I’ve still got a final proofread to come. I found her through Reedsy, and I think it’s going to be well worth the $700 I spent. - Be organized
This isn’t like an edit of one of my 500-word newspaper articles. This is an 88,000-word monster, with a need for a coherent narrative that I’m making up from scratch. There are plenty of opportunities to screw something up — and I took advantage of plenty of those opportunities. If you’re not organized in your approach to the revision process, it’ll swallow you up, because there are just so many decisions you have to make. I went through all the edits several times, recording them and color coding each one based upon how extensive it was, then attacking the simpler ones first, working my way toward the ones that made my brain hurt. It was challenging, and I knew it would take awhile, but I needed a system I could trust, and would get me to the finish. You do too. - Patience, patience, patience
I can’t tell you how anxious I’ve been to get this book in everybody’s hands, to start seeing how it will do out in the world. Will people actually buy this thing? Is all this work going to pay off at all? Will my mom buy enough copies to get me into the NY Times top 10? I can hardly wait to get answers to these questions. But a big part of trusting the system I put together, and the editing process, has been to be more patient than I in any way want to be. There are no shortcuts to a great novel. You simply have to be willing to put in the work to get the most out of the narrative you’ve rattled around in your head. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.
It’s a process you have to stick with to get the most out of it, and I’m almost there. Just one more read through and a final proofread before the book hits the digital shelves. Trust your work, trust what you’re doing, and there will be dividends in the end.
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