Well, it’s finally back–my editor (aka my mom) has finished with her first round of editing on my novel, and I’ve finished reading her edits.
As is natural with any writer/editor arrangement, I didn’t agree with all her suggested changes. That’s just how it goes. I have my phrases that I thought were just genius, and she kinda looked at them and said no, no they’re not. That’s the editor’s job. Knock the writer down a peg or two. 😉
Now I have to go through it all again, reading more carefully. Is this sentence really better her way or my way? Or is there a third, bester way?
I’m going to need beta readers soon. The alpha reader project failed miserably. I got a few feedback comments, but for the most part my alphas ignored me and made excuses. I understand life happens, but I’m not just writing this for funzies here. I actually would like to get it published some day. If I had waited for those alpha readers, I wouldn’t be nearly as far along as I am now. I might never have gotten around to editing.
For now, while I’m on revision #2, I’m going to continue submitting a few chapters at a time to my critique group. Once I feel like I’ve got a somewhat decent polish on it, I’m going to go to another group and put out feelers for beta readers–strangers this time, but people who take writing seriously and understand the importance of deadlines. I’m not trying to rush this, but I’m also not trying to take seven years to send out to a publisher.