There are two things that a novelist hates the most. First, the editing process. Second, and the worst, is a negative review of your book, which I have not faced yet, thank God. Since the first of May, I have had my hip and part of my leg replaced due to an adverse drug reaction, then rehab, physical therapy, and so forth. After that, I developed an infection and fluid in my lungs which has left me breathless for over five weeks because they can’t give me what they used to, because it caused the bone death. All of this has set me back from my original planned release date of The Travelers’ Club – Flame and Ash (Book 2 of 5 in the Travelers’ Club series). It is written, and has been for awhile, but now I face the editing…sigh.
The book as it stands is about 430 pages long in 6″ x 9″ trade paperback format. I have four sets of edits, which means basically rewriting the around 1,700 pages. I pay a professional editor, Jacob Shaver to provide edits. I find from him, that like some coffee is decaffeinated, apparently my writing is de-hyphenated. I have to add around 100 missing hyphens. Along with that, he speaks four languages and corrects my poor French and Spanish. (I get the conjugations and gender messed up as I speak only English and German). He points out my use of collective language that I need to squelch, those times I leave out setting during action or dialogue, and many other things. He is nice enough to put little exclamation marks on the parts that are good, which keeps me going through all the mark-ups.
The second editor is my wife. She owns half of everything, including being a 50% partner in my S-Corporation through which my book sales flow. She was once my “silent partner” but now that I am semi-retired and a full time novelist, she is a very vocal partner. She tells me all my spelling mistakes and areas where characters are “out of character.”
The third editor(s) is my weekly fellow authors at the Central Phoenix Writer’s Workshop. I must credit them with teaching me 90% of what I know about writing. I thought I knew writing until my first piece was critiqued. I’ve learned a lot. About half of my chapters have been reviewed by this august body of boon companions. They give me not only writer hints, but also reader hints. The most helpful to me is if there is any scene where they do not know what is happening. I write in a visual style, and I don’t want the reader to ever be confused or skip over parts.
The fourth editor is the toughest – me. I can’t help but go back while making the first three edits and find myself adding and altering. Perhaps the first three edits are symbiotic in my creative portion of my mind and form new ways to express the story. Or, maybe you can always change things in your book, every time you edit it. My first book, I was a rookie, and had my editors and edits finish in three days. As a result, the first edition had errors. I put out a second edition with a better cover after going back and re-editing it again. This time, as with the second book which was an anthology with lots of help, I will be thorough in the edits.
My health improved, events and book signings scheduled, there is nothing for it but to slog through and get it done. My fourth book is due out in December, the fifth next Spring, and this baby needs to be put to bed.
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 