A quick update on my progress with editing my novel: holy smokes, this is a lot of work! Writing the first draft was so much easier. All that involved was smearing whatever crap popped into my brain onto the computer screen. Piece of cake! However, beating Mike Tyson in Punch Out* might be easier than sifting through my shit-stained first draft and forming it into something intelligible.

“Books Aren’t Written. They Are Rewritten“

The above quote is attributed to about a thousand different writers. I thought Stephen King said it, but apparently he’s the only writer who didn’t. Anyway, it’s a great line that definitely rings true.

So, I just finished the first read-through of my draft. Oof! It took longer than I ever imagined!

The editing process began as a simple re-read. But then, a bunch of shit niggled me as I read. Why is the middle of Missy’s story so dumb? How the hell do I have three characters named Ray? And what color are Mean Ol’ Johnny’s eyes anyway? Are they demonic black or dull gray or icy blue?! BECAUSE THEY CAN’T BE ALL FUCKING THREE! The whole thing quickly spiraled out of control.

And, ho-ly shit, those middle chapters involving Missy! If you do not know, Missy’s my second point-of-view character and a female heel wrestler. Her middle chapters were super cheesy–like unintentionally Dr. Evil cheesy. Straight-up cringe. Also, her backstory simply did not deliver nearly enough motivation for the drastic actions she took at the end of the novel. So, I revamped Missy’s entire backstory and will completely rewrite those chapters. Trust me, they were that bad.

I actually love MIssy’s first few appearances in the novel; her first point-of-view chapter is one of my favorites. But, her scenes are a complete shit-show from that point until well past the middle of the novel. I’m chucking every one of them into a Terminator 2 pit of molten metal, ensuring their destruction for the sake of all humanity.

The Story-Level Revision

Upon further review, I tried to do too much at once, which just made this whole process a miserable slog. My first re-read should have been a quick, hands-off review. Instead, I found myself brainstorming large plot ideas, inventing new backstory, and revising scenes all at once–and not doing any one of those things particularly well. Lesson learned.

I abandoned the triage idea, which is too focused on the scene-level for a first pass edit. It only enticed me to dive in and start revising everything immediately. Eventually, I just read the draft and jotted down notes about ideas that popped in my head. Now that the first read-through is complete, I will outline the high-level plot of the story as it currently stands and then revise that outline to match my new ideas. This revision will focus on big picture stuff like story structure, plot, character development, character arcs, world-building, and pacing. In the next phase, I will actually start rewriting the scenes.

Below is a great video from NaNoWriMo about the revision process that convinced me I was making my life way too difficult. They suggest dividing the passes up into a quick re-read, a story-level pass, a scene-level pass, and finally a line-edit pass. The idea is to fix the big issues first and work down to the detail level. It’s an excellent watch–ideally before you’ve spent two months trying to do it all at once.