Editing... again!

In fact, I'll probably be editing for the majority of 2019...

But you know why I'm editing...?

It's because I finished the first draft of "book 8" (the third book of the trilogy) before Christmas!!

I'd hoped to get the first draft done before the end of 2018 and be able to start re-drafting/editing etc once 2019 started, but I had essentially finished on Christmas Eve (though I did go back and fiddle with stuff on Boxing Day!).

This is where the three books of the trilogy stand at the moment:
"Guardians of The Realm 1: Aegyir Rises" has been out to beta readers (who liked it! Hurrah!!)
"Guardians of The Realm 2: Aeron Returns" is at first draft stage
"Guardians of The Realm 3: Chaos" is at zero draft stage.

The current plan is to get all three books to the same stage and then send them out to a professional editor. I've just finished a re-read of "Aeron Returns" and am shifting that from first draft to second draft. Once that's done, I'll work on "Chaos". I don't think "Chaos" will need as much work as the first two books, as it was much more tightly planned from day one, so although it's a 'zero draft' it feels more like it's a first draft, to be honest.

Mind you, I'd thought that "Aeron Returns" was in a slightly better state than it is! The re-read didn't throw up anything too horrendous (thankfully! That was all sorted the last time I looked at it when I was pulling my hair out and needing chocolate) but it showed me that I needed to do more work on it than I'd originally anticipated. The Post It note situation is looking more like this (though written in English)...


But, I'm chipping away at it and every edit is making it a better book! My beta readers are champing at the bit, wanting to know when they'll get to read this next instalment! This is both amazing and fabulous (people are itching to read something I wrote!) but also scary and adding a bit of pressure...

The current plan is to finish this fix by the end of January, if possible, then re-read "Chaos" and fix any structural issues, then go back to "Aegyir Rises" (because there are minor plot changes arising in the later stages of the trilogy that I need to track back to the first book!). After that, there are things I need to check across all three books (character arcs, dialogue, descriptions etc), so it's a long journey ahead. But, at least I'm still loving these characters!

Eventually, the tangled mass of threads will look like an organised pattern. Honest!!




Comments

  1. I wish I did this with my trilogy, instead of publishing book 1 when book 2 was only a draft and book 3 was only a vague idea! Now that I'm finishing drafting book 3 I promise myself never to get into this situation again!
    Good luck with your plan. Plus readers will love the fact they don't have to wait a year between books!

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