Editing My Current Work In Progress

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I'm hard at work on the third revision of my latest work in progress (WIP). I started writing this story a few years ago but put it aside when I got the offer to publish THE WATCHERS OF MONIAH trilogy. I needed to write the third book, THE WATCHERS AT WAR, so that took precedence.

After my last book had been edited for publication, I came back to this WIP. I've tentatively titled it, PLUNGED IN PURPLE. I say tentatively, because publishers have been known to change a book's title. It's an urban fantasy that's a mashup of Red Riding Hood and Hogwarts, but for adults. (FYI, mashups give you a hint of the story's theme, not the true story.)

You might ask why does it need three revisions? A book requires multiple revisions. Each time you revise it, you need to ensure the story still works. After this revision, I'm going to my beta readers and a freelance editor I used with my trilogy.

For the third revision, I'm reading it out loud. Why? Because you hear issues that you don't notice when you read your own work. The hardest part about editing is looking at your work with fresh eyes. Many authors write their manuscript then put it aside for a week or longer before going back over it. Thanks to COVID, I waited over a month. It does help, especially when I find a passage that doesn't fit the story. If I can't figure out what I meant or why the passage belongs in the story, it's gone. Distance makes that easier.

The image with today's post is a mock cover I created in Canva when I first started writing Plunged. It has some of the elements I'd love to see in the final cover, but it's missing things. A wolf, for example.

I'm headed back to editing, now. I can't wait until I can share this story with you. FYI, if you don't subscribe to my newsletter, subscribers have already received two sneak peeks into this book. If that interests you, you might want to consider subscribing. While I'm editing, I'm identifying potential passages to share with them.


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