We all have heard:
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Well, I tried to kill my darlings, but my editor wants me to I resurrect a few. Let’s just say, it’s possible that when I did my first rewrite, I might have gone on a killing spree.
And FYI apparently my fifth draft sucks too.
I’m super thankful for the time that my editor has put towards it already. I was told to tighten up the action scenes and watch my sequence of information in the details, and fix a POV issue.
I’ll also be fixing a problem with the storyline. Without spoilers, I introduced a plot point early in the book, but it didn’t show up until much later. So I need to bring it forward in the story. This suggestion was absolute gold, because this morning, I realized how to do it without hurting the rest of the story…and even more important it makes two scenes towards the end of the book even more poignant. Another suggestion didn’t work, but I realized in a way it did. She thought I was trying to do X, so she pointed out that Y also needed to occur. I got frustrated, but then I realized since she didn’t understand what I was trying to convey, I needed to clarify. Sometimes by adding back pieces of old scenes that were cut.
Personally, I find the editing process difficult. People think its because it hurts to cut. It doesn’t. It doesn’t even hurt to rewrite scenes and take advice.
As I’ve said before, it’s hard for me to wait to hear back, because I tend to start thinking the worst.
However, now the ball is back in my court, so now I have a different problem. I find its hard to say no to suggestions. I want my editor to be happy and proud of the project. After all, her name will be on it too. And I want to make the acquisitions editor happy she continued to put faith that my writing will make a buck, and I want to make the reader happy enough they purchase it. The only solution is to focus on the words on the page, not any person. Not even me.
While this revision is not as major as the last rewrite, I’m planning to take all of January, because while I’m focusing on this project, I’ve a few other commitments.
So dear readers, thank you for your continued support. I will answer any questions that I can answer, but please do not ask about plot points at this juncture. If you have any words of wisdom, please add them to the comments.
ZB's Blog of Awesomeness 