I finally received word that the book has officially gone to copy edit. That means the hard work is done! No more drafts, no more restructuring or re-envisioning. It’s done, done, done.

I did discover some things that surprised me. The way I get through these massive edits is to let some areas be “good enough.” I was surprised by those good-enough sections that still remained at this late stage of the game. It’s often the case that when writing isn’t BAD, but isn’t up-to-par, it can hide out amongst stronger writing as long as you’re still editing for other things. But once the rest of the piece is locked in place, those weaker sections become glaring and impossible to ignore.

I was surprised to encounter an entire chapter that felt throwaway. So uninspired and boring that I couldn’t believe it was there. In this chapter, the main character has a hang-out with a love interest. Although I generally had fun writing them, I couldn’t quite figure out the meat of this time they spent together. The chapter changed multiple times in terms of how it related to the larger plot of the story. I allowed their conversation to be ho-hum and forced because the chapter was serving a purpose (and I didn’t have the inspiration to improve it).

In this final draft however, I realized all the plot-supporting elements of the chapter had been taken out. With the chapter’s function removed, it became super obvious that the chapter was empty. It didn’t spark and it didn’t engage. And because all the edits leading up to that chapter were small line edits, I finally had the bandwidth to address it. (Also, it helps that it was now or never. Final draft!)

I went back to the characters previous hang-outs as inspiration and used that energy to edit the chapter. I think it worked to bring much more excitement to their time together. I added a line of dialogue having the main character make a bold statement. The language didn’t feel quite right for her so I tweaked it a few times, but couldn’t hit the right note. Thought it was imperfect, I left it in because I thought it was important for her to take this bold step.

Well, BOTH editors had a problem with the statement. I could consider it a tad bit irresponsible to throw in something that I knew wasn’t quite right at this late stage, but luckily we still have time to address it in copy edit. Now it’s an emotional placeholder and I’ll find a way to put something comparable in—something that’s much more aligned with the character. Edits up to the final hour!

Other than that chapter, I found an action scene that the character movements seemed sticky and unclear. It was the first moment of a confrontation that had been building so I was grateful for the opportunity to tease out the details and clean up the writing to make the whole chapter read much more clearly.

Then there was the last 40 pages of the book. I would say the ending of the book was the part that underwent the most transformations over the six drafts. While most of the book was about refining scenes and details across the drafts, the ending took a long time to lock into place. I rewrote the ending with each draft, searching and searching for the right final revelations and confrontation between the hero and the villain. As the newest part of the book, I had the most edits at the end. As the plot was FINALLY locked, I could refine and revise from a language perspective—smoothing things out to improve the readability.

The novel writing journey is incredible. My first novel was much shorter, and almost seemed to spring forth fully formed. It got done quickly. In between drafts of this novel, incredibly. And each draft seemed to be pushing it closer to an already determined conclusion. This book was completely different. It’s like it could have morphed into so many directions and contained so many possible iterations. The final product is one of many possibilities. It feels like just one pathway in a multiverse of potential plotlines and character combinations. Phew.

Next up is the administrative and logistic task of getting the book completed. Then all the promotions and spreading the word. And in the midst of all that, it’s also time to start the next book!

Here we go.