How I’m editing my WIP, Stuck in Laemek, while still relatively new to this progress!
Alright, so, this blog may or may not be inspired (somehow, I don’t even know, but she’s cool as heck) by my mutual, Sam Evans, BUT… I’m going to be answering this question that was not asked😭
How am I editing Stuck in Laemek as someone who is still relatively new to this whole author thing? Well!
I want to say that the only reason I’m saying I’m still new to this whole thing despite having published Betrayal when I was twelve, is because, One) I am still new, Two) I’ve been working on SIL since I was thirteen… I’m sixteen, now.
Betrayal was in general just very, very… Harsh. I was twelve, and I did not have the sort of knowledge I have today (despite still not necessarily that educated on this whole subject).
I did ROUNDS upon ROUNDS of editing from both me and my dad—shoutout to big dawg for being my number supporter since day one💯🗣—and it still came out so horribly written.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of the process it took me to write it, but I’m not happy with the end result (hence why I’ll, in the future, rewrite it lollll).
So how am I editing Stuck in Laemek?
Well, after I had finished writing it, which led to me being on geek mode for a few hours, I made a copy of the document.
On that copy, I start with chapter one (I should probably read the entire thing over first, that’s what I would recommend, but I’m me, and certainly won’t do that), and just rewrite it.
How do I rewrite it? I usually use notes in general for literally everything, including this work, so, I went to my writing folder and made a new note.
I then selected a small, or large, chunk of the chapter that I wanted rewritten, copied it, pasted it to the note, and then just right under that, rewrote it.
Like this!! ⤵
⤵⤵
Pretty simple really!
And if I like a paragraph/sentence, I usually keep it in (which just so happens to not happen often), but it usually undergoes some sort of change, anyway.
Sometimes the chapters get written entirely different from the first draft, sometimes I just stick with the same idea manifested differently. It really depends how I feel about it.
I feel like I should also state that later during draft 3+, I might rewrite it again. None of these will be perfect the first round of editing, especially since the first draft is usually, more or less, messy!
I’m not sure how other indie authors do this, but this is the way that makes most sense to me.
It does take a lot of time and effort, just the same as actually writing the story from scratch, but for me, its effective.
I’m just hoping by the end of this, it won’t be another three years 😓
Will I have another editor? Yes, actually: My dad! He’ll be like a beta reader, and when I look through it again, and I like it, then it’ll be off to my publisher (my dad also… LOL)!!
