Happy New Rear, beaches.

 HAPPY NEW REAR!  (Year, too, I s'pose ;) )

Since the completion of the rough drafts for my first two books in the Liren series, I've been fretting on how to balance editing with continuing the story in Book 3. While I was away on vacation, I wrote a LOT more, nearly every day, for two hours, just adding to the story in Book 3.

Some days were wonderfully productive, others were spent trying not to fall asleep in a chair after my husband gave me a shot instead of feeding me lunch (haha, yar! #lightweight and proud of it!).

Today makes a week since I've returned to "real life." I half-ass edited on Monday and half-ass wrote, not really sure how or what I wanted to do or how to tackle both these massive goals. Wednesday, I said screw it, and I wanted to WRITE, so I wrote for two wonderfully productive, blesséd hours, adding to the plot in Book 3.

Today, Friday, instead of writing for two hours as I usually would, I spent the day studying the Word with my sisters in Christ, spending some time with one of my favorites who is a fellow writer (author of The Candy Store), and by the time I got home, I edited the rest of Book 1 Chapter 1, ate some pizza, watched a show, and am now about to crawl into bed, rest the mind, body, spirit, and get ready for a (hopefully) creatively productive weekend. 

(Sometimes days like this feel weird. Many times, if I don't write on Fridays, it's because I've chosen to spend the time reading -- I usually seem to require a day of reading for my creative juices -- but I didn't do that today, so I kind of feel like I've avoided doing what I want to do and part of me is warring against my desire to read and snooze early on this Friday night. Maybe I should write and edit instead? Gah; I toil over things so long that I make myself anxious and angry sometimes. I DO want to edit right now, and avoiding it is making me restless and disgruntled, but I'm also tired, so I'm doubting my ability to edit well. SO, I'll probably just go read after this, and yet at the same time, beat myself up about it because deep down, I really DO want to write/edit, because I didn't do it today and barely did it Monday, and yet I ALSO am eager to just settle in and read because I've been on the go all day, and writing/DEFINITELY editing takes a lot of mental energy, and frankly my brain is tired... haha, and now I'm sure yours is!)

Anyway. This is all a long-winded way of saying that I THINK I've figured out how I will tackle this year, especially following several editing videos I've recently watched from other authors, one of them being Brandon Sanderson, and the FOCUS (one of my clients gave me a word for this year ("focus"), and it is RIDICULOUSLY spot on!) of this year's writing/editing plan will be as follows:

1. Line/Plot edit via red pen on the MASSIVE amount of printed pages for Book 1 (will be focusing ONLY on editing Book 1 this year, because it seems it will be MUCH more work than the writing, and all published authors caution to not feel like I am almost done just because the first draft is done; I joke about the work just beginning, but no... seriously... it's just beginning, and they're all saying the editing process takes just as long and often LONGER than the original creation part...*yikes emoji*).

2. Implement the edits upon completion of edit fors each chapter in a new Word document.

3. Upload document, one edited chapter at a time, to this new software/app I subscribed to (ProWritingAid.com -- seems to be EPIC; heard about it from an author I watch on YouTube, Jenna Moreci), for a "final" edit.

4. Export "final" edit of each chapter into yet ANOTHER Word document to create a "complete" "Draft 2" document.

5. Once I have "final"-edited the entirety of Book 1 (and there will be some major plot re-working near the end/climax, so... that'll be an interesting thing; I wonder how many times during a session I'll swivel from binder to laptop to notebook of notes and back, haha... ha... ha. *cries*), RE-upload it to the ProWritingAid software to do YET ANOTHER "final final" edit.

6. Put all THAT into yet another Word document, "Draft 3."

7. Recruit some beta readers.

8. Likely start the process all over.

The goal was to complete the edit of Book 1 by June/end of June so my grandmother could read it for her birthday in June. Totally thought that was realistic. I've edited only Ch1 so far. It's about 12-15 pages, double-spaced and printed. It took me 1.5-2 hours... There are currently 622 pages in Book 1 (YIKES!!!). Already, I can see TONS of superfluous words and phrases and just... sometimes entire paragraphs... that are unnecessary. CandyStore author says, "trimming the fat." Well yes. I'll be trimming a lot of fat during this year, and the NEW goal is to complete the first "final" edit of Book 1 by year's end.

As for the continuation of Book 3, well... I'll let the Muse yell at me like it did on Wednesday, because I am having a lot of fun writing the actually story and don't want to stop. And it's not done yet, so I shouldn't have to!

Final note -- I thought writing Book 3 while editing Book 1 would be a crazy, confusing thing, but REALLY, I've found that by continuing the story in Book 3, thereby forcing myself to answer all the unanswered questions in Book 1, I can make Book 1 more fluid and consistent because I now know, without a doubt, where the story and plot is going. (Can you say run-on sentence?! There are a lot of those in the writing too...)

So. I'm intimidated, but excited and looking forward to being able to present my edited manuscript to my grandmother... and of course some editors/publishers... though THAT step probably won't happen until mid-2022-ish due to the thing likely needing a second or third "final final final" edit.

Yeesh. It's work, but I DO so love it.

Thanks for tagging along in this creative process! It's a journey and a joy to have you with me.

Happy New Year!

~J. R. DuBois, *aspiring!* author (I realized I probably shouldn't put "author," because even though, yes, I absolutely am a writer, am I REALLY an author without having published anything yet? Eh? Yes? No? Maybe? Doesn't REALLY matter, but does beg the question... Anyway. Until next time!)