Editing New Novel -- Second Time Through

Editing New Novel -- Second Time Through

I just finished writing my next novel today. I am far from finished. I don't know about other authors, but different phases of writing a book brings out different feelings. For me, that definitely is the case. This was the same with my first female sleuth novel, "Murder by the Clock."

I first start by coming up with my idea. When I write my book, I find that I deviate from what my plot was intended to be. The guilty party sometimes changes. I want to give the reader a chance to figure out who did it by the clues I give. I have always hated reading and then, at the end of the book, the author throws out who did it and nothing in the book has given me a clue that it was that person. He just pops up out of nowhere and confesses, "I did it." That's frustrating.

Sometimes my characters want to take control of my book. That's good to a certain point. However, my characters have to be consistent. If a character is unsympathetic toward his fellow man, it is unbelievable when he admits that he loves children or dogs.

My second time through my book requires a thorough understanding of my characters. Consistency is the key.

I find that, as the book progresses, I am more concerned with getting the plot and my ideas written than I am with style or anything else. The second time I concentrate on expanding on the thoughts I have written and in filling in description of the places and events.

I have many more read-throughs before my book will be ready for final editing for typos, consistency in names, spelling, etc. For now, I am satisfied with just reading through my book and making sure that the plot and characters are consistent.


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