Because I wrote about two thirds of the novel for NaNoWriMo, the novel was a jigsaw of pieces that had to be put together, which is not the way I normally write. Once it was put together, it needed a thorough edit (or maybe rewrite) to make sure the pieces joined up and to add in some enhancements that became apparent.
In the rush of creativity I didn’t stop to make up names for several of the aliens, I just called them A,B,C etc. So as part of the edit, I had to create the names and then swap all the letters. I wrote sections of the story which ended up being much longer than one chapter, so I had to go through and work out where to split the chapters. Then they all had to be renumbered.
I do have two places to work on where there’s no timeline, but I don’t count that as editing. The story is fine, but there’s no indication of how long things take, and in both cases there’s too much to fit into one day.
The next thing to do is to run it all through AutoCrit. I’m going to do a full review of AutoCrit next week, but it points out weaknesses in your writing, like passive voice, unnecessary words (like ‘that’ and ‘very’), repeated words, and much more.
When that’s done, I need to put the whole thing away and not look at it for 4-6 weeks. That gives you time to forget what you wrote and come back to look at it with fresh eyes. During that time one of my beta readers has offered to read it early and give me some key advice. Exciting!
Ann Marie Thomas is the author of three medieval history books, a surprisingly cheerful poetry collection about her 2010 stroke, and the science fiction series Flight of the Kestrel. Book one, Intruders, is out now. Follow her at http://eepurl.com/bbOsyz
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