Linda Nelson

What is your process you use when you edit your works?

Me, I tend to revise as much as I can on the first round.

But when I get to a chapter that stumps me I go right back to the beginning of the story and start once again. Each time I find something else at the beginning of the story that can be tweaked just a little bit more.

I keep doing this until I get passed that chapter that initially stumped me and continue on my way until I come across another problem chapter.

This seems to help me with making sure the story is consistent and solid. I just keep rereading that which I have already edited each time looking for more things to tweak.

Witch Book was edited in this fashion.

Originally this was not the way I edited. I had not process or procedure. I would just read and look for spelling and grammar errors.

But editing is much more than spelling and grammar. It is looking to make sure your book has enough glue in-between the pages to make sure it holds together.

Are the characters built up enough to make sure the reader can relate to them?

Do you have enough description or too much?

Does your plot make sense?

Is there enough conflict?

Did the reason why you wrote the story make it into the pages?

And last but not least, is it too much of a cliff hanger? Did you answer all the questions that needed to be answered before that last pages says “the end”?

ROW80 Update:

So far I have edited the first eight chapters of Road Salt. Each time I have tweaked the beginning just a little bit more. It has been kind of like sculpting.

But even though I am only on chapter nine I am half way done with the edit.

I have a four day weekend and will be stepping out for a couple of hours and I plan to be right back at it.

I still have my goal of having this edit done by Christmas and maybe have the eBook edition ready by the first of the year.

My intention is to use the KDP select option for this book for the first three months then it can go live everywhere else.

It seems like every time I publish another story I find something else to test, a different avenue, a different photo stock source, or what not.

This time it will be Kindle Select.