Idle hands are a terrible thing. I started to outline the second book in the
series. I sent my manuscript off
early. It was in late February instead
of early March as I had planned. This
week the lengthy report came back. Let’s
just say that in over 1,600 words, Lauren was kind.
From her general comments:
Thank you for letting me read and work on A Stag/Vixen
Story. I think you have a strong, workable draft here. I like the arc of Helen
and Mike growing together as they navigate the changes in their marriage, and
how their time apart actually helps them come back together as a couple.
That obviously felt very good, even though the rest of
the feedback was fair, and by fair I mean it had a lot of holes.
However you want to depict it, you need to develop the early
part of their relationship so that the reader understands when the crisis hits.
Even if it catches Mike off-guard, it needs to make clear sense to the reader
why Helen would decide that she wants to separate.
Right there is why you pay a professional editor. I’m not going to give away too much of the
plot, but this was a key part of the re-write.
I had to figure out a way not to surprise the reader. It’s okay for Mike not to see something
coming, but unless I’m doing a mystery surprising the reader is not a good
idea.
When you write scenes, consider what work they’re doing to
advance the plot, which is the development of Mike and Helen’s relationship
into healthier sexual territory for both of them. For instance, while the
wedding scene is good, I’m not convinced that it advances their relationship at
all.
That last one hurt.
One of the early scenes I worked towards was the one she is saying does
not move the plot forward. Ugh! That’s one hell of a miss for me. I’m going to have to do a lot of thinking
about what to do there.
For the most part, the book is fairly well-structured and
clearly written. I do suggest drawing more explicit parallels between the
sections with Mike going to therapy and his changing relationships with Anna
and Helen.
That last bit was encouraging. The mechanics of writing a short form story
are so different from the long form. I
was very concerned about this, so I spent years reading about plotting novels. To hear that I got part of that right, is a
big boost to my confidence.
The rest of that section in the report talks about how I
set something up beautifully, but by failing to follow through with it, in the
very next scene or chapter, I blew the set up.
This was my first work with a professional editor. I have nothing to compare it to, so I’ll move
forward and rewrite this book based on her input. I’ll try to schedule a conversation to flesh
out some of her feedback.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
Have you ever had someone do a structural edit?
What did you think?
