Editing can be the end

So, you've finished your first novel.  The characters are developed, there is an entertaining plot and maybe even a little twist meant to keep your readers excited until the very end.  Now you think to yourself, 'Self, I must start getting this book into the world so I can become a successful author.'

WRONG!

That large stack of paper is nowhere close to being ready for potential agents.  First, you must edit.  Go back to the very beginning of your manuscript and start reading.  But you can't read it as if trying to enjoying the story, you must look at the book as though already expecting it to be a dog pile.  Not just any pile, your pile.  So you must work hard to take that stinking mound and transform it into the closest image of a masterpiece you can manage.

Doing this will take more than one read-through, so be prepared to go over your work again, and again, and again, and again...until you feel you have as few mistakes as possible.  Don't expect your manuscript to be perfect, because it never will.  You can always find something to change every time you re-read your book.

Knowing when your book is ready to be sent off to hopeful agents can be one of the most important (and most difficult) decisions on the road to becoming an author.  No one can tell you when your manuscript is ready; sometimes you just have to jump in and hope for the best.

Once you are ready to send off your manuscript, there is one (maybe two) more step you must take...writing the query letter.

Next Post: The query letter

Beginning

Most of my free time over the last few years has been spent in the world of writing, revising, query letters and agents, so you may be wondering why I am choosing now to start writing about the process.  Well, I can give no other explanation except boredom.

I began writing seriously about 5 years ago after waking up from a particularly vivid dream.  My husband (only a boyfriend at the time), told me to write the dream down, but after reaching the end of the one-page exercise, I learned there was more to the story.

What should have been a short story at best, became a trilogy of novels and the start of my writing obsession.  A simple dream of being bitten by a spider had somehow become a young woman's journey toward discovering a magical world, how to use her untapped magic and protecting her father's throne.

The next two plus years took my characters through three books, nine weeks and too many near-death experiences.  My own life was turned upside-down on several occasions while writing these novels, but it wasn't until beginning the process toward finding an agent where my endurance was truly challenged.

Next post: Editing, editing and then editing some more will nearly kill all aspiring authors.