Editing The Novel

[anthimeria]

So, apparently my post-DPI theme is "whining about writing."  This week's topic is, as it says above, Editing The Novel.

Not "the novel" generically, but my as-yet-untitled YA high fantasy novel (the one that goes with this icon), referred to as The Novel.

I've never really settled down to edit a novel before.  My previous attempts were such egregious sins against storytelling that I put them out of their misery and moved on.  The Novel is, I think, good enough to work on, but--man oh man, I'd forgotten how much work it needs.  I knew how much editing it needed three months ago, when I finished the rough draft.  I remember knowing how much work it needed.  And yet, reading it through for the first time with editor's marks already on it (I had kind and wonderful professors who edited as I went) is hard.  I take a certain amount of pride in being thick-skinned and in knowing when an editor is smarter than me, but I seriously considered printing out a clean copy or reading it electronically, because the editor's marks were distracting and disheartening.

The point of a first read-through, though, is to discern what needs work, and then on the next read-through to get down to picking at it, so I should probably be grateful to have all this lovely, helpful feedback already.

And I will be!  Once I've wiped my eyes and knocked some sense into myself.

NB: In the future, I think I'll go over my own rough drafts at least once before I let anyone scrawl all over them.  Editing as I write and then doing a first read-through from that copy might save paper, but it doesn't save my heart any.  Slings and arrows are for later, when I've actually started creating a Draft II.