I was so excited about the progress this week (not to mention busy) that I didn’t have a chance to write a blog about this week’s big milestone: the first edit is complete!
Austin really pulled through and edited the last half of the book in about a week, and I managed to get through all his notes and changes in two days. My eyes are still bothering me from it but I managed to get it done anyway.
While chatting with him as I went through his edits, he let me know that he felt like I took greater care towards the end, saying that the last few chapters had very few edits. Which I found a bit surprising given that the last few chapters seemed to just fly out all at once — I blinked and before I knew it, I had the last chapters and was done.
My one question (so far) to him was whether or not he could predict the outcome — which he couldn’t. I enjoyed that. My whole point (with the story) was the surprise the reader and to end it on a note that would be unexpected but (hopefully) satisfying.
To prepare for the next round of edits I’ve printed a hard copy (which to my surprise was 226 pages and a whole black ink cartridge in my shiny new Epson printer) so I can mark it up with pen. I’ll be on a plane in a little over a week to Vegas for a long weekend and will be doing some story and character editing on the flight there and the flight back. I figure I should have enough time to write some notes and get down some thoughts after I get through a full reading for myself.
I’m really excited that I’m moving through this process at a greater speed now and with Austin’s notes, I feel like I’m almost unstoppable.
In case you’re wondering what the book looks link printed, here’s a picture I took:
