The Editing Diaries– Hello, Deadlines. Goodbye, Sanity.

Welcome to my series, The Editing Diaries!

In a nutshell, I’m editing my story LASER and bringing you guys along for the ride. I want you to see how my process for editing novels works (and maybe I’ll figure out my process with you). So, buckle your seatbelts, we’re going on a trip!

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I have a deadline, now.

It’s a self-imposed deadline. But a deadline, nonetheless.

My goal is to be completely done editing LASER by September 10th. And also to write a query letter and a synopsis. And to come up with a better title for the story.

I can hear you all pondering. Why September 10th?

For a few of reasons.

1. I started writing LASER last September. One year is long enough to write, type, get alpha feedback, edit, and polish a story. At least for me.

2. It’s an achievable goal. Yes, I will have to work hard to do it, but if I’m going to make this my career, then I need to work hard anyway, right?

3. September 10th is the next #PitMad on Twitter. Basically, for one day, authors pitch their finished, polished, unpublished manuscripts in 140 characters or less. Then agents (and possibly editors, too, I think) favorite tweets. When they favorite tweets, they are requesting a query from you.

I really want to participate next time. September 10th is therefore my deadline.

This also means I will most likely not have time for another round of feedback. My alphas will get to read the “finished” story, but there will be no betas. Sorry about that.

How is editing going, by the way?

Well, it’s going pretty well. I’ve been hit with a couple of realizations this past week.

1. This story has to get worse before it will get better. 

In other words, I am almost through this pass. (Yay… sort of.)

But my story is less coherent than it once was. (Hence the only sort of Yay.) Like… there are holes that would swallow you alive. And then I would have to go find a ladder and a very good rope so I could come save you.

But I am okay with this (Not with the holes being there…). It was actually very freeing to realize that my story would be so… disjointed at the end of this pass.

2. I have to rewrite basically the whole ending from the low point on. 

Which, honestly, I was vaguely aware of. I knew the climax needed work. Wasn’t anticipating the entire ending, though.

But I am actually excited about this. BREAK OUT THE NOTEBOOKS!

The blue one is the one I’ve been using for plotting LASER this whole time. The red one is completely empty and will be used to rewrite the end.

Everything is pretty fluid, at the moment. I only have a few things I know must happen in the end. Everything else… as long as it satisfyingly fulfills all the promises I’ve made, anything goes.

Which means I have no idea who lives and who dies. If they died in the last draft, it’s possible that they will live in this one. And vice versa. (No promises, though.)

Speaking of promises and answered questions, some of you may be wondering why I need to think of a different title for LASER. 

LASER is an acronym for League of America’s Supernatural Emergency Rangers. They are an organization that’s main job is to protect humans from creatures that… well, the critters are supposed to be mythological. They aren’t.

So why isn’t that a good title?

Because that’s a better title for a series.

Right now, I would be perfectly happy writing LASER books for the rest of my life. The LASER HQ in my WIP is just one division of many across the USA. What about the other ones? Do they run things the same way? And then there are other organizations, too. What about the ones in Europe or Asia? Africa? Is there one in Antarctica? Also, is LASER the only one is the US? (Nope.)

That’s just the organization aspect. There are so many stories I can tell. So many mythologies and fairy tales to explore. And the characters, too!

Okay, that’s enough fangirling of my own stuff for a while.

How are your writing/editing projects going? Do any of you have deadlines, too?

DFTBA!