Thoughts on editing
I'm now up to chapter 7 in my read-and-lightly-edit mode on Normal. It's fairly cohesive so far, and I was happy to note that I ended my first few chapters with cliffhangers - a good thing to entice agents if they want to know more. I can't help but worry, though. It's a very complex story because roughly the first half of the book has alternating chapters on past events, and these events parallel the current events in the story; it's a technique I found enthralling and suspenseful in The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and it had a huge impact on me. Essentially, the reader knows how everything ends and who dies, but not how or why. The suspense of discovering how it happened made me set The Sparrow aside at times because it was making me a nervous wreck.
Trying to do this technique myself? Not horrible, but it still needs a lot more editing. My tenses are inconsistent in spots, and I wonder if I need more details. The basic information is there, and that's good. I won't have to add 30,000 words like I did with The Locked Door a year ago. However, that novel was also a lot easier because it was so linear and had a smaller cast of characters. I have super heroes coming out the wazoo in Normal.
Hubby gifted me with Self-Editing for Fiction Writers for my birthday. I hope to start it in a few days. Maybe it'll give me some new advice I haven't already learned the hard way (aka through editing Mouse).
(Edit: I always make horrible typos in my posts about editing. HA!)
Trying to do this technique myself? Not horrible, but it still needs a lot more editing. My tenses are inconsistent in spots, and I wonder if I need more details. The basic information is there, and that's good. I won't have to add 30,000 words like I did with The Locked Door a year ago. However, that novel was also a lot easier because it was so linear and had a smaller cast of characters. I have super heroes coming out the wazoo in Normal.
Hubby gifted me with Self-Editing for Fiction Writers for my birthday. I hope to start it in a few days. Maybe it'll give me some new advice I haven't already learned the hard way (aka through editing Mouse).
(Edit: I always make horrible typos in my posts about editing. HA!)