I have been in the throes of editing for roughly two months and it has been eye opening.
I did serious edits on my first book, then titled the unpronounceable Macyntire & Hough…now titled A Haunting On Commercial Street. But, the edits on Lockwood Tower are really teaching me something about my writing and how to layer a good story.
These edits are also taking a lot of brain power!
Where I used to be afraid of deleting and discarding pieces of my writing, I am now chopping with abandon. Not to say that I am making frivolous edits – on the contrary. I am forcing myself to look at the prose as a reader and from there I am consolidating the number of words into more precise sentences.
I am asking myself, can I say this in fewer words? Am I rambling? Am I restating something that has already been said?
These are all things to look out for, and the more you edit, the more easily you will spot these things and change them. My printed pages look like a tornado has come through with all the scribbles, crosses, and other notes peppered through. It can become overwhelming to look at, and for the uninitiated preparing to work on their own manuscript, it can be downright terrifying.
However, it is important to remember that these edits are not the destruction of your manuscript. On the contrary, these adjustments are simply tightening what is already there. Your information is still going to be on the page, just in its best form. Who wants a Charmander when you can have a Charizard, am I right?
As I go through my manuscript, I find bits of information that doesn’t line up, that needs to be changed for consistency. Every time I find a piece like this I am overjoyed. The manuscript is not just a collection of chapters written over a year’s time, but now a whole story that is being smoothed out to become exactly what I intended – and in some cases, more than that.
Patience is virtue for me right now, and I am thoroughly enjoying the time I spend rediscovering Lockwood Tower.
More updates to follow!
Franklin Kendrick 