Time for the long, but fun, process of editing my 220 page manuscript. The reality is that I will probably change 30-50 percent of the work before I feel it is ready to send to literary agents and publishers. This might seem outlandish, but it is part of fiction writing. There are few authors who can sit down and craft a perfect story the first time through, and theirs are often the literary (sometimes plot devoid) type. You know the ones that are made into movies and the end leaves you with a “what in the hell” response.

One cannot sell a book in today’s market that isn’t well edited. But one can’t edit a book if it is never finished. For this reason, I write the entire first draft with minimal editing. Why? Because if you try to edit and write simultaneously, you may get bogged down and never finish the story. When one knows that it may take them years to complete a novel (depending on your dedication) there is no need to add the stress of tearing apart you own work while writing it.  

For the record, it took me seven months to write my first novel and eleven to write the second (It was during my first year of teaching mind you).  Most writers have a day job and for that reason, motivation is a tricky thing. Don’t waste your precious writing time editing. In the end your story will have evolved in ways you couldn’t foresee and those perfectly written pages may be deleted.

The key to finishing is writing!