Edits for the Stars in Her Hair

I sent my edits in for The Stars in Her Hair to the People’s Library a few days late.  I was a little disappointed that the edits were only going to be typographical ones.  If I had known, I would have sent my novel to be edited by someone else before submitting it.

I don’t know much about the publishing process, but it seems a little unusual for a book to be printed without an editor.

Why didn’t I send it off?  I guess I wasn’t ready for the book to be seen by anyone else.  It was too raw.  So, I edited on my own and it turned out quite a big job.  Confronting.  Some of my writing was bad and the plot meandered and nonsensical at times.  I cut 20K works out in that edit.

The draft as it is now is a very raw final draft.  It will be published with only typos fixed. I feel I haven’t done enough, I even had a dream I was burying the novel in a hole in the backyard.  So no one would read it.  But I’ve been reassured by some of my more experienced writerly friends that its perfectly natural to feel that way.

I have thoughts about developing this book, but right now, I feel I need to work on my new novel.  Perhaps I need to leave it for a while and come back with fresh eyes.  Or come back when I have had a good dream about Jane Shu.

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash