I’ve been on hiatus for several weeks now. Yesterday, it took a long time for me to muster the courage to open Serenade and start final edits. Perhaps I was afraid it would need rewriting.
In the past, I could only make my stories better by rewriting entire chapters. This time, it’s not the case. I worked hard to shape it up before the second beta round, apparently with good results!
Once I got to work, I managed to control my impulse to over-edit. I don’t need to rewrite every sentence. Some need deleting, sure, and a word has to be changed here and there. Nothing drastic, though.
With three chapters edited, I’ve managed to pick out some quotes that stayed in place throughout the drafting process, like the one above. Sometimes, though, it feels like I’m reading a chapter for the first time.
That hiatus helped. Space is necessary if you want to make progress, once the time comes to edit. It’s important to see your manuscript with fresh eyes. I’m happy with edits so far, and not scared like I was earlier.
Do you follow a specific routine during the editing process? Is paper necessary for you to spot errors in your manuscript, or do you work better with the flexibility of a Word document? We all go about it differently; I’d love to hear your point of view!
Mariella Hunt 