Editing my own book is hard

Posted on by Eric Klingenberg

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I’m not a complete stranger to editing as I mention a few hundred times before I did edit James Harrington’s Soul Siphon (go buy it, it’s good). I was quite looking forward to editing my own. The book is in two parts. With Part One I kept going endless back over it correcting and re-writing until I made myself stop and get on with Part Two. With Part Two I just wrote not ever looking back until I got to the end. With this in mid I thought Part One would just need a bit of tweaking, insert the odd missing word, reword the odd sentence that type of thing.

I was wrong, I was very wrong. The first few chapters are, well, a pile of donkeys kidneys. In my head I had written a master piece but in reality it made 50 shades of Gray look good. I’m having to rewrite great chucks of it. The story (I hope) is o.k. I just haven’t written it very well. I’m hoping as I go on it will be better but I have definably made the mistake of trying to edit when the book wasn’t finished because of this I’ve become a bit bored with the earlier parts. On the upside I hope this shows my writing skills have improved.

I dreading what I’ll find when I get to Part Two, and all this is before an editor has had a look at it. I was hoping to be out by Easter I’m wondering if Summer might be more realistic.

14 thoughts on “Editing my own book is hard”

  1. bon courage ! 😀 it’s almost impossible, you will read and re-read the mistakes. It’s not a criticism, but ith happens to every one who writes …. this is why there are editors (people who edit for others), it’s the best solution. Allez, hold on to it 😀 have a nice day 😀

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  2. You need to (as they say in Frozen) “Let it go.” I edited my first and only book (so far) three times. I could have done another edit, but I was told by many published authors to let the fresh set of eyes of my editor take a look, otherwise I could find myself never letting it go. One tip I did pick up (and which worked very well) was to do a backward edit by reading from the end to the start of each chapter. So, read the final paragraph of the chapter first and then work back. I certainly picked up a lot more mistakes by doing that and found it a great tip.

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      1. If you’re rewriting (rather than just editing) then fine. But when it comes to editing, don’t spend an excessive amount of time doing it. The last thing you’ll want to do is to put it away and not come back to it. I knew when it was time to do no more editing and to pass it on to the editor. I’m sure you’ll get that feeling as well.

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  3. Stay strong! The first draft is you getting your story onto the page, the second is about making it half decent 😉 I used to write like you did for Part One, continually going back and editing as I went, but it honestly seems to do more harm than good (You never finish, for a start!). I don’t think Part Two will be as bad as you’re expecting, but I think by comparing the two you put forward an interesting case study. If it turns out, which I expect it might, that both Parts need the same amount of editing, then it will be a lesson to just sit down and crack on with it when you’re starting that dreaded first draft! 😀 Will be interested to hear how they compare.

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  6. I am going through the exact same thing right now. I have been trying to add in character motivations because my earlier draft had the characters acting as plot vehicles. It has drastically changed large sections of the manuscript. Also, since I haven’t talked to you in quite awhile, how have you been?

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I'm a special needs teacher living in Devon England. I'm currently writing my first fantasy novel. When not writing I enjoy chess, reading, sailing and computer games. I'm married with 2 step sons and one grown up foster son.