It’s editing time again!

Editing is my least favorite part of writing, which makes sense. I’m guessing most writers write to create new worlds and live in new stories. When you stop to edit, you aren’t creating anything new. I even took a break from Illaria, thinking I’d finish one more new book in a different series before I started editing. However, the completed Illaria book is calling to me.

This book was finished in November. That’s right. It’s been sitting there, waiting since November. When I started writing a short story from Max’s point of view, I ended up down a rabbit hole that became Oracle of Illaria. Now, I’m in the position where I need to make sure the second book I wrote – which is now book 3 in the series – fits with the world. Thankfully, this book started 2 months after Heir of Illaria ended so there was room in between.

So where does that leave me now? Starting the editing process for Book 3.

Everyone has a different process and I’ve found it interesting to see how other authors go about this stage. So I figured I’d share what I do. Here’s how it goes down:

1. Create a Kindle File of the book and read the entire thing for content. At this stage, I try to read the book the way a reader would. Looking for any plot holes, places I skipped things, or need to add more info. Really, anything that would leave a reader confused if I didn’t put it in there. Notes in this section are minimal. Unless it’s a major problem, I don’t allow myself to make notes during this stage.
2. Print the whole thing. Yikes. It’s a big document. I print it out and get it bound at Kinkos in a nice little sprial thing. It looks official and makes me feel like it is complete. Kind of a nice part of my process.
3. Red pen time. I read it again, on paper this time, and make notes on everything major. I make notes on plot issues, places to add detail or remove unnescessary things, and any grammer / usage / sentence structrue things that are too big to ignore. However, I try not to do much with the grammar, etc. stuff at this stage. This is just notes to myself. I don’t actually fix things here.
4. Back to the computer. Time to add in my notes from the paper into the actual draft. This is where I actually type in the changes. While I’m doing this, I might even catch more things to fix.
5. Read through on the computer to check for grammar, punctuation, spelling, typos, etc.
6. Send to editor for comprehensive edits – check for story flow and overall feel of the work.
7. Make changes based on editor recommendations.
8. Send back to editor for line edits – checking grammar, spelling, word choice, sentence structure, etc.
9. Make changes based on editor recommendations.
10. Create updated kindle file – read through for any typos.
11. Update file based on my proof-reading.
12. Send copies to proof-readers.
13. Make corrections based on proof-reader comments.
14. Format for Kindle again. Send to ARC team.

Note: I didn’t create a step for my procrastination blog post….looking back, I’ve noticed that I write a lot more blog posts while editing. So, I suppose that’s part of my process, too!