How I edit…

I have edited a great many books in my time, usually for other people, and I usually start at the beginning and go through the first draft that way.
This is how I edited my own first book “The Ninth Life” and I think for a debut, it turned out quite well. It was meant to be a one-of, but the characters had other ideas. Or wasn’t it supposed to end the way it did?
So I was literally forced to continue the story, and when it was time to edit it, an interesting idea occurred to me. I have no idea where it came from, and I don’t think I have heard of other writers doing the same.
This sequel had turned out to be quite complicated. Maybe sequels are, I have no idea, not having written one before. The idea of editing all of the characters chapters separately seemed like a logical and workable thing to do.
That way I could see if the threads of the story (and their lives) were running fluently, and whether there were any gaping plot holes anywhere.
Well, I found quite a lot of holes and several lapses of continuation, leading me to update my running storyboard yet again.
At times, it seemed all I was managing to do was make it even more complicated, and I despaired. As I get older, there seems to be far too much of this despair happening around me, but I digress.
There are four main characters in “The Last Life” and all so different from one another, so I concentrated on each one in turn. I found that I could enter their own space and really get to know them personally. The result seemed deeper and more rounded.
I have discovered there are more ways to edit than there are for writing, and one is no better than any other. I allow the story to tell me how to proceed and this usually works well for me.
© 2015 Jaye Marie