“Editing Your Own Work…Halfway Through The Farpool: Exodus”

Recently I finished the approximate halfway point of my current sf novel The Farpool: Exodus.  Usually at this point, it’s time to review and edit my own work…something akin to flossing your teeth.

The story so far is at 135 pages.  That would put the finished first draft somewhere in the vicinity of 230 to 250 pages…about right for this kind of novel length work.

First order of business in editing your own work: take off the rose-colored glasses.  You have to learn to read the story like a first-time reader and be ruthless with your precious words and delicious turns of phrase.

Ask yourself this:

1. Does the story flow?  Does it move along?  Why or why not?  Maybe you linger too long describing some place or scene.  Cut out useless descriptions and get the story going again.  What happens next?  In all my stories in Tales of the Farpool, I wanted to have a lot of action.
2. Are you interested in knowing more about the main character(s) and finding out what happens to them?  If so, great.  Keep going.  If not, why not?  Maybe the reader needs to know a little more background about these people…a brief flashback.  Why do they act this way?  Was it a drunken father who abandoned the family?  Was it the death of a brother?  A sadistic math teacher?  Lay this on thinly but it might give your character more to hook readers.  In my Farpool stories, remember, some of the main characters are aliens…talking marine creatures.  Here’s where your background notes come in handy.
3. Do the twists and turns of the plot surprise you?  As the author, real surprise in the story may be hard to achieve.  But take a reader’s point of view, if you can.  Surprises and unexpected plot twists can really grab a reader if done right.
    
   Of course, it stands to reason that you’ll always be correcting misspelling, awkward phrases, etc as you read.  And please do Spellcheck at the end, because you’ll never catch everything.  Sometimes, when doing Spellcheck, I find myself intentionally leaving a misspelled word for a reason and that’s okay.  Just make sure you have a story-telling reason to do that. 
    
   One of the challenges of writing and editing this series is the fact that it is a series.  I’m somewhat constrained by what has gone before.  I’m trying to make sure the story stands on its own as a story, but I don’t want to explain or recapitulate everything done in the previous two novels.  It’s a juggling act.
    
   Another challenge to authoring a series is making sure to wrap up all the loose ends of the plot in the final tale.  To do that, you sort of have to keep score.  In my final story in Tales of the Farpool, I will surely have additional challenges in that my main character, Chase Meyer, has actually changed physical form and is not a normal human being like you and me, but rather a modified amphibious hybrid able to live and breathe air and water…or anything else he wants.  It’s been fun and hard work to imagine what life would be like living this way.  Somehow, in this final story, I have to convey what life is like as an amphib (my term for this modified para-human entity), advance the story of what happens with this as a key fact, and close out the story of what happens to him in the end. 
    
   In my review and editing, I’m trying to be as critical as possible as to whether I have achieved these ends.  I’m finding that I may need to add more to the story to bring this character, who has been a continuing character, to life in all of his predicament.   I want the end to be a satisfying conclusion to all the adventures Chase Meyer and his girlfriend Angie Gilliam have gone through before and perhaps even to show some change or growth in Chase as a result.
    
   The Muse.com has some good tips on editing your own work.  Here are five (from Caroline McMillan):
    

1. Print out your work (this helps simulate a fresh or ‘outsider’ perspective, which should help you edit)
2. Take a break (put some emotional distance between creating words and editing them)
3. Read it out loud (this is a really good idea)
4. Pretend you’re the audience (already covered above)
5. Be ruthless (ditto)
    
   On first read of The Farpool: Exodus, I have a good bit more work to do.  That’s normal.  That’s why we edit. 
    
   With any luck, I’ll be done by the end of February and you can look for this story to be uploaded to Smashwords.com and other fine ebook retailers in April 2018 at the latest.
    
   The Word Shed will take a two-week break for the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays. The next post to The Word Shed comes on January 8, 2018.

See you then and have a great holiday time. 

Phil B.