Help! I'm editing my novel

 

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

 

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.  C. J. Cherryh

 So I've finally got round to editing my novel - Hoorah - thougth it's not finished yet. It's 3/4 of the way there, and I thought it would help if I printed out what I've written so far, read it, makes notes, changes and that will hopefully help me to to decide how to end it.

 Or will it? After reading some well known quotes on editing I'm not so sure. 

For those of you who don't know me or any of my writing. Here's an elevator pitch for my novel so far: 

'What if the sweetest resident in a care home turned out to be a serial killer? In A Goode Woman, Gloria Goode—a charming elderly woman with a knack for baking and bingo—hides a chilling secret: she’s systematically murdering those around her. Told through police investigations, the confessions of a guilt-ridden care home manager, and Gloria’s own unsettling diaries, the story blends dark humor with gripping horror as it explores the duality of human nature. As the detectives unravel the web of deception, the question arises: how many lives were lost because no one suspected the woman with the warm smile and the daffodil-yellow wellies?'

So, I edit in my job, but that's normally prayers that I want to be a lot shorter, not texts of 39, 926 words. When I look at it like that, it doesn't even seem that long, but it's taken me long engough to get there. 

 So, here's how I'm thinking of doing it. Reading it though first, making the odd comment when I can't resit, and then going chapter by chapter and being ruthless, well, trying to be ruthless. The challenge is, I need to try and look at it though someone else's eyes, otherwise I'm not editing brilliantly, I'm flattering my ego. 

I'm hoping to see things, like major consitency errors, where characters names have changed or their ages. Seeing bits where I get bored, or lose interest, or thinking 'what just happened there?'

The general advice I've heard is too not let anyone else read the first draft. The first draft is meant to be rubbish, so that's what I'm working on. 

Do any of you have have any advice, especaily those of you who have already completed and had your novels published? 

Any tips in the comments or on Facebook would be much apprecated. 

Thank you. 

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology and Lent devotional and three Flash fiction anthologies. He's currently working on his first novel.