Next Up: Edits and Rewrites

Ah, finally. The first draft of book #2 is complete! Typing those last words (which I'm sure will get changed in the revising process) took a huge weight off my shoulders. That weight was lifted for about, oh, five minutes, give or take. Then came the printing of all the chapters, quickly followed by me dusting off the red pen. Bring on the edits! I started reading through everything last week, marking up my pages with the red pen and highlighter (see photo), and filling countless pages in my notebook with scenes that need rewritten, content that needs added or deleted, etc, etc. I started working on this book back in October when Destinedto Fail was being edited, and I don't edit my work as I go. Let me rephrase that – when I write, I write chapter by chapter. I start from the beginning and write until the end. Once a chapter is complete, I go back and re-read the chapter and fix any glaring typos, but I leave all the heavy editing until the end. My reasoning is that I don't want to get too caught up in the edits, I want to keep writing and reaching my word count goals and keep the story flowing. 
So now I am working on a quick self-edit, to be followed by rewriting. I'll give an example of a rewrite I need to do. In the beginning of the story, my MC Alex gets offered a management position at a salon and spa. She gets the job over an internal employee, Kamille, who is not pleased that she didn't get the job offer. Kamille works hard to sabotage Alex and the plans she have, taking opportunities to make Alex look like a bad employee in front of the bosses. I built up all these scenes where Alex tries to figure out how to show Kamille's true side to the owners, but then after chapter 8 – Kamille just disappears. I mean, literally is not spoken of again throughout the remainder of the book. Hello?! Where the heck did Kamille go? I was banging my head against the wall when I realized that giant error. So that's a big issue that will need to be worked on in the coming days. 
I'm pretty excited to be moving on to the next phase in the book. I can't wait to start working with my editor shortly and then start looking for some beta readers, who are always so helpful to indie authors. The next post (hopefully to go up next week) will be the title announcement!