The editing never ends...

February 13, 2023

What a massive difference the use of time becomes when writing is a full time option. In the space of two weeks I completed edits of three novels, a task that would normally take at least a month for each one when I was working in school!
 
Apart from all the common corrections re typos, grammar, spelling and so on, my editing process last week addressed, for example, issues like:

1. Disappearing characters

Four major background characters had ‘disappeared’ ie their fates were unresolved in Book Four. I have addressed two and the other two will be dealt with today. Once the plot of Book Four stopped dealing with these characters they literally slipped off the radar of the tale. They need to reappear appropriately, even if they remain ‘off stage’ in events.

1. Time

While I was conscious of the story arc spanning several years, I had not meticulously mapped the exact time in the drafts. I was able to work through and find that the whole story across four books covers a period of seven years in our characters’ lives. The three human protagonists ‘come of age’ in their respective books – the dragon ‘matures’ and certainly grows in physical size.

1. Currency

Originally, I named the currency coins ‘keys’ (ie money opens doors) but the clash with that word for actual keys across the story was just annoying, so the realm coins are ‘bits’.

1. Repetitive/overused phrases and words

So many actions are repeated in telling a story that some words and phrases need to be altered with synonyms or eliminated as unnecessary. For example, in my case, I have (and will again today) work through the stories to deal with excessively repeated use of ‘turned to’, ‘looked at’, ‘said’, ‘met X’s gaze’, ‘approached’ and a host of others.

1. Said

I use substantial dialogue in storytelling because I believe it shows rather than tells what is happening with characters, but while there are many synonyms to describe speaking it becomes highly repetitive to use said (and sometimes forced when I replace a simple ‘said’ with ‘replied casually’. I don’t think I can ever complete or get this task balanced enough.

1. Scenery description

I like opening chapters and sections in chapters with a snippet of the place to set the scene. Unfortunately, across four books at 30 chapters per book and possibly anywhere up to 300 sections overall, scene snippets also become repetitive eg ‘gulls circling fishing boats’, ‘sun sinking’, ‘birds heading to roost’, and so on. The challenge is to find enough variation while retaining reader reference to the setting/place.

1. Connection to past series

The Andrakis trilogy way back in 1992/3 established a fantasy world, magic sources and dragon culture which I subsequently used and embellished in the 2002/3 Ashuak Chronicles and 2006/8 Dreaming in Amber series. These are now weaved into The Last Wizard sagas. Chronologically, The Last Wizard comes after the other three series, but in another part of the greater world, much further east. There is a partially completed loosely titled Dragon Queen series I started in 2011 that sits between Dreaming in Amber and The Last Wizard that is also somewhere on the drawing board for completion. All five series are connected now.

1. Endings

The Last Wizard sagas are coming of age tales, so each book is designed to end with the main character having some understanding of who they are becoming and their possible purpose. The fourth book also summarises the outcomes for all four characters. The editing challenge is to make that ending satisfactory and complete for the readers who have come on the long journey. While the ending completes the overall tale/adventure, I do deliberately leave open the possibility for a whole new adventure to begin for our ‘matured’ characters. I can’t help it.
 
Those are samples of what I put into a ‘third’ edit process when writing. This week, when the last issues mentioned above are resolved, I will do a full read of the saga to check for any glaring issues I somehow missed. Then it’s time for beta readers.