Working with an editor: take one

So I heard from my publisher's editor, and I gotta say, I was really nervous.

So so far no one, and I mean no one has read my ms, except the publisher and editor. I was anxious because of all the sex scenes, and was dreading the editor's comments. 

My fear? That she would say "Right, so, the sex scenes. Um...No. Take them out, they're horrible! They're gross and icky." 

Or at least that's what I thought. I imagined hours upon hours of hard grueling work, arguing points of grammar and struggling to keep my concept and narrative.

Instead, it was absolutely fine. I learned so much about the process, and found her a privilege to work with. I shouldn't have dreaded her comments at all. Don't get me wrong, it was hard work and I spent the better part of a day going over each edit and doing line by line read-throughs of every single page of my 200pg+ manuscript.

But it is absolutely worth it. The writing improved, bits that were confusing or odd were reworked or taken out, and I only had to really redo two scenes for clarity, and not even that was bad. 

Revising and editing can seem really daunting but I found this a really fun and focused learning experience.

This next step of my journey to become a published novelist is happening. Watch this space!

Cheers
​ELJ