Beautiful Books: The Editing Process

Happy December everyone! I’m here with another blog link-up from Beautiful Books. Even though I didn’t officially participate in NaNoWriMo, I’m coming to the end of my WIP, Suit and Suitability, so the questions about “The Editing Process” seemed fitting. I managed to write over 27,000 words in November, a record that leaves my other monthly word totals far behind. This month I hope to write with equal persistence (come on, brain, you can do it!). But I am starting to think about the editing process, so without further adieu…

 1.    On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), how did the book turn out? Did anything defy your expectations? 
I don’t know; perhaps an optimistic 7? The novel took turns I definitely didn’t expect from the outset but that I really, really like. It also came out way longer than I expected…frighteningly longer. 

 2.    Comparative title time: what published books, movies, or TV shows are like your book? (Ex: Inkheart meets X-Men.)  
Sense and Sensibility meets Grace Livingston Hill’s 1930s novels meets a scoured clean Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, I think. (I don’t want to see that movie, but I semi-know the story, and the rich 1930s setting is similar to how I picture my S&S. Plus, I understand that it involves an actress and two female leads with opposite personalities.)

 3.    Do you enjoy working with deadlines and pressure (aka NaNoWriMo)? Or do you prefer to write-as-you’re-inspired? 
I enjoy working with my own deadlines and goals, such as the 25k words I made myself write last month. That’s the best way to make my writing actually go somewhere fast!

 4.    How do you go about editing? Give us an insight into your editing process. 
I set aside the completed story for a while, until I feel distanced enough to read over it with a fresh, eager, yet critical perspective. I read it once, fixing things as I go (inconsistencies, clumsy sentences, wordiness, length, inaccuracies), then let some other people see it. I keep going through it until it’s as good as I feel I can make it, then I have my special critics read it and help me improve it. After all that, I’ll probably read through it again…

 5.    What aspect of your story needs the most work? 
The law case involving Ellen and Marion’s father.

 6.    What aspect of your story did you love the most? 
Ellen’s and Marion’s spiritual journeys.

 7.    Give us a brief run down on your main characters and how you think they turned out. Do you think they’ll need changes in edits? 
Thankfully, I don’t think any my main characters will need much changing, though I’d like to better develop Calvin Bradley (aka Colonel Brandon) and Everett Shepherd (aka Edward Ferrars).

 8.    What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever? 
More edits, finding beta readers, self-publishing in the Vintage Jane Austen series!

 9.    Share a favourite snippet! 
This is at a Broadway theatre where Marion has just seen the musical Anything Goes.

     Marion’s hands flew into an involuntary frenzy of applause; she felt as if the whole audience’s applause lifted her somewhere heavenly. She let her tears gather. The show was beautifully madcap—touching and amusing and thoroughly cheering, all at once. It could appeal to the masses and delight critics, planting songs and lines in the minds of everyone to flourish there forever. Someday she would know the actual feel of having acted in a show like that, and this applause would be for her and her friends.

10. What are your writing goals and plans for 2016? 
I’d like to finish S&S and tie it up with a pretty bow. I’d also like to start on a new novel…I have at least two ideas, but nothing definite yet. I also have shorter stories simmering, but we’ll see if anything comes of them.

Check out the original post on Further Up and Further In! How does your editing process work? What are your writing goals and plans for 2016?