Anyone else get paranoid when they’re editing (or self-editing) a manuscript and there are almost no corrections on a page? I am working my way through Blood Hunt, going on 16 chapters now, and so far all I’ve been fixing are contractions and a word choice here or there. I won’t lie, it had me worried until I remembered I’d already done a hard edit of this part when I hit the halfway point. Still, it somehow doesn’t seem right to leave a page without red ink.
With NaNoWriMo fast approaching, there are a lot of people out there gearing up for marathon writing sessions to reach that 50,000 word mark. For those unfamiliar with the event, the challenge is to write a novel in a month with minimal edits and rewrites. You just type like crazy, and then you go back to make it all look nice. It’s a useful event to get writers going (because, let’s face it, sometimes it’s easier to procrastinate and put off the finish in favor of tinkering with one particular chapter). But it doesn’t make for good quality writing. At least not on its own. Sooner or later, you will have to face the dreaded edits. So let’s talk about those…