There’s thunder and lightning here, and a big full moon tonight. Lots of energy floating around! And happily the same could be said for my WIP. (That’s social-media-speak for Work in Progress, usually used to refer to a book! Oh, and yes, Beauty and the Alchemist is its working title — but titles often change after agents come into the picture.)

Today has been full of brainstorming (ha, like the weather outside! I could have made a better pun there, but I’m too focused on murder plots). On Monday I got my manuscript back from the editor, who was WONDERFUL. There are a bunch of different kinds of editing out there, including:

  • Manuscript evaluation: a basic, big-picture look at the plot of your novel
  • Developmental editing: an in-depth look at the plot and some recurring issues with characters or grammar
  • Copy editing: looking specifically at spelling, grammar, and nitty-gritty details
  • Proof reading: the very last look at a manuscript, catching all tiny leftover errors

My editor did developmental editing. That means she read through the entire thing and left some comments on specific lines (think lots of “Track Changes” in Word) but she also wrote me a letter describing what she thought worked, and how to improve what didn’t. And on top of that, she spent time with me on Zoom going over everything, offering suggestions, and some much-appreciated encouragement!

So now my job is to incorporate (or reject, if I have good reason) her suggestions into yet another new draft. But this draft is a big one. Because outside copy editing and the like are often done later in the process, this draft will be the one going out to agents. That’s the sort of thing that would have been really scary a year ago. But I’m so excited! I have a good feeling about this project, which has only grown since looking through the edits.

So, what did the editor suggest? Well, she pointed out places that needed more description or backstory, first of all. (No surprise there: keeping my cards too close to my chest tends to be my biggest writing downfall!) She also gave me a great suggestion for tweaking the beginning, making it a bit more fairy-tale-esque. But the most important issue she raised — and consequently my biggest challenge in rewriting — is reconciling two separate plotlines in the book. In the current draft I have a murder, and I have a find-the-hidden-books puzzle (think Indiana Jones in a fairy tale castle library?). Aaaand before now, those two plots ran parallel until the end, when everything wraps up. Now I have to work on weaving them together much earlier in the book.

At first this seemed necessary, but daunting. Now, though, I have some ideas about how to do it. And I can’t wait to finish this newest draft! 🙂