Editing, Round 1

I am actually for serious editing this massive behemoth of a project. When I wrote The Apprentice Wizard back in 2007, I knew, in my heart, I wouldn't really publish it. So I didn't bother editing it.

But I want to publish Seafear. I really, really want to. I have faith in the story and the writing, and I think it could be a successful novel. And so I'm editing it.

Editing is a very boring process, and it's very slow. I reread Seafear over the past few days, and I wrote down my initial reactions after finishing it. The good thing is, I'm not embarrassed by it. I'd be fine showing this to friends and family (actually, my mother has picked it up and is 18 pages in). I found a few plot holes, but I think those are fixable.

Now I'm reading it for a second time. I've got eight pads of sticky notes, and I'm going line-by-line and reading Seafear again. Anything that sounds weird, or any inconsistencies I find, I leave a sticky note with some brief thoughts on it. It took me about an hour to read through chapter one (punctuated with watching some Michael Jackson documentary -- a guilty pleasure), and I have about one note per page.

This is going well. I'm excited. I'm not following one of the most basic words of advice I've heard from a lot of authors -- put the book down, don't look at it for a few weeks. But I'm afraid if I don't start now, I'm going to lose steam. I wrote more than half of this book in less than a month (it was a month ago today that I first got some real headwind on it and pushed through what I was stuck on), and I'm still running strong.

In other news, I've started a detailed outline for Seafear's sequel. I don't have the energy to do that and edit, so that's going on the wayside for now. I need to concentrate on Seafear before I think extensively on its little brother.