Writing #12: Editing

I haven't talked about how writing is going much lately, mostly because I've been crazy busy with editing. As a side note, I know exactly how often I use the words 'crazy busy', I'll stop when they are no longer apt, now back to the topic at hand.

I finished the first draft of Code Red, September 30th, and immediately jumped into Beta Reading. This was probably a mistake, but we all have to learn. I immediately started the first round of edits, and had them finished October 6th. Currently, only two of my Beta Readers have completed the book, my deadline for this round of Beta Reading is November 8th. I am still shooting for an early December release, but the more this month passes the less I see that happening. We're still on track, but I am disappointed to have fallen so far behind.

I'm currently working on the biggest stage of editing, with my Alpha Reader. It has been a very long, tedious, pain in my ass process. I tend to write minimal description as I go, because I already know what a scene looks like, for that reason there is lots of narration to be added. That doesn't include other rewrites and edits that have to be done. I decided to this the entire second bout by hand, to force fresh eyes on the work, and while that has worked I dread typing all the edits in.

On top of rewrites I learned that my chapters are not of equal length, so I am having to re do most all of the chapters which will probably double the number of chapters I have. The current (without rewrites) word count is about 60,300. I expect by the time it is complete we'll be pushing 70,000 if not more.

In the midst of editing I learned that my formatting is all screwed up, and while my wonderful Alpha Reader partially fixed it, there is still quite a ways to go. I could not be more thankful for those of you who have motivated and helped me along on this journey so far, without all of you Code Red would not have the tender loving care it truly deserves.

On that note, I best get back to editing!

Come back soon.

Taila Out.