EDITS! And how to spell Suppose. Supposedly.

Edits, oh edits,

how I love thee,

let me count the ways.

One

Two

Three hundred

fifty pages worth

and two more pages of Edit Notes for good measure.

I received edits back on Book One in the Crimson Bay Series this week. (I have the best editor in the world...just sayin'.) I'm thrilled. Downright giddy. Editing something, tearing it apart line by line, analyzing what works, what doesn't, and why, is the reason I went into teaching. I love it! I was the English teacher who smiled ear to ear on grammar days.

Don't get me wrong...I make errors in my writing. A ton of them, in fact. My quotation marks sometimes go the wrong way. I can't seem to spell "supposed" for the life of me. Suppose...suppose...S-u-p-p-o-s-e...supposesupposesuppose!!! Isn't it suppose? Nope. Supposed. Although I know how to spell it, I misspell it every single time.

What's the point here? I'm not perfect. The revision letter from my editor tells me so. But I'm having so much fun fixing those errors and making this manuscript as perfect as it can be. I'm molding it into something shiny and new. Something it was supposed to be from the beginning. There's no better feeling than taking something you worked so hard on and bashing it into shape to be something better.

Edits aren't meant to be painful. (Although after eight hours with Ass In Chair yesterday, my backside may argue the point.) They should be fun. It's the last time I get to play with these characters. The last time I get to listen in on their fights and mess with their world. It's the last time I get to watch my hero and heroine fall in love. And it's oh, so, sweet watching my bad-ass hero brought to his knees by love.

So the next time you're reworking your novel or editing it to pieces and feel that editing grouch start to claw its way into your mind, remember how much fun the characters were to create in the first place. You get to revisit them! Remember dancing on the streets in your fictional world. Do it some more! There's no greater joy for a writer...for me.

As soon as I have a title for Book One I'll let you know. Back to editing I go! Wish me luck!