Editing

As you know, one of my favourite subjects – and a vital part of the writing process.

On Monday I was over at Walker Books in London, my Amy Green publishers. In the afternoon I talked marketing with the team – website, events, filming a special Amy Green trailer, fanzine, cute pink leather heart shaped Amy Green luggage tag to give away to readers . . . endless amounts of wonderfulness. And fab choc brownies at lunchtime in the Walker canteen.
They were full of brilliant ideas and I can’t wait to see the finished campaign.

In the morning I met with Gill and Annalie, my editors. They had some pretty interesting things to say about book 2, Bridesmaid Blitz.

Basically they did a nice sandwich – we love the writing, the plot needs some work, love the characters, especially Amy and her voice is fab.

Spot that bit in the middle? The plot needs some work.

Ah yes. ‘Some’ might be underplaying it a bit. I need to unpick the whole plot and piece it back together again, with more emphasis on Amy and less on Mills, her best friend. They said it very nicely of course but it still pinches.

Writers secretly want to hear how brilliant their book is, how it doesn’t need a bit of editing, how it just fits together so seamlessly that not one little tweak would make it better. But unless you are Roddy Doyle or Marian Keyes (who I bet would all laugh if they read this – as I know they both work very hard indeed on their rewrites and edits) your book will always benefit from an experienced editor’s eye.

I’m so grateful that Gill and Annalie took the time to read and really think about how I could improve my work. The more editorial notes I am given, the more grateful I am. Even though it means a lot more work.

So for the next few weeks I have to rip Bridesmaid Blitz apart and piece it back together again – my very own patchwork quilt of words and sentences and scenes. It’s up to me to make it as good as I possibly can. I owe it to myself and to my readers (bless them) to put everything I can into this rewrite and hopefully make it better.

How much of the original book will remain? I’d say about 1/3 or less. 2/3rds will be completely new material. Scary stuff really. Quite the cull. But it has to be done.

I’m thinking of putting the deleted scenes on my website – as an added extra – like they do on DVDs of movies. What do you think? Or maybe they should stay exactly where they belong – in the deleted scenes file on my laptop!

It’s all a learning process and nothing is every wasted. Or so I keep telling myself.

If you are interested in an editor/agent’s point of view on editing – read this post by the excellent Nathan Bransford, Curtis Brown, US:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/11/how-to-respond-to-manuscript.html

Good luck with your own edits.

Sarah X