Novel Editing Update
Added 2024-12-31 16:34:11 +0000 UTCMy job is very generous with vacation time in December, so I’ve been off from work for two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Outside of seeing family and friends, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on novel edits. I’ve still got a way to go, but the time off has been quite useful.
It took me longer to write The Blood of Life then I wanted it too, but I finished the last chapter of the book back in September. I then did some revisions and sent it to my writing group to review. Part of the process I’m doing now is reviewing feedback on all the chapters I have from my writing group. I had stopped doing edits on the chapters of the book the writing group reviewed over a year ago, so some of the feedback has been sitting for a while.
However, focusing on writing new chapters and not revising them has proven to be useful. While there are corrections I need to make, because I now have a written ending for the book, it’s been easier to tighten up scenes because I know now what the reader needs to know about. If there is something I need to hint or talk about in a chapter, I know what to add. If there are threads that didn’t get resolved, I can fix that by taking them out or making sure they get addressed later.
Once I have all the edits merged in, I need to do another read through of the complete book. When that is done, I can hand the book off to an editor. If this book was to follows a similar timeline like Scars of the Golden Dancer went through, release of The Blood of Life could still be years away. However, I feel the draft is already much stronger than Scars when it went off for its second editing pass. I’m also making finishing edits on this book my priority, and it’s taking up most of my writing energy right now.
My target release date for this book is Anthrocon, but I’m hoping to wrap up major production for it by Fur the ‘More in early March. I might even have copies of it at that con, but I think that’s overly optimistic. I also want to make sure the novel gets enough polishing done before it gets released. I’m confident though it will be out this in 2025.
