The Editing Spark

To determine this when tidying, the key is to pick up each object one at a time, and ask yourself quietly, 'Does this spark joy?'  - Marie Kondo

So you've drafted your manuscript. You've typed thousands and thousands of words and you finally (finally) have a story with -- hopefully -- a beginning, middle, and an end.

Success!

But ... now you have to edit it.

And what is editing if not tidying. Marie Kondo's famous words were forefront of my mind as I did my first round of self-editing. Every sentence brought me so much joy. I laughed at my own jokes. I fell in love with my characters (again). Honestly, I think I might have written some of it in a fugue state because there were literally parts I didn't even remember writing! (Oh, hello, postpartum sleep-deprivation brain)

Sure, I tweaked some words or moved some things around, but the "spark joy" method was not working all that well.

But SNOW & SILENCE, quite frankly, was a bit of a mess. I completely pantsed the shit out of it, writing almost 90% of it during the six months after I had my third baby. That's not to say that the story needed to be scrapped. It just needed a good round of developmental edits.

Now, almost one year after I started drafting S&S in earnest, I am querying. I've gotten THREE full requests in less than two weeks which tells me that my query package is working.

Read on if you want to learn my process in getting from idea to query-ready manuscript.

Alpha Readers + Developmental Edits

My first set of readers got a rough draft. It was approximately 60,000 words (which means it was underwritten and needed fleshing out).

And let me tell you -- these readers were absolutely incredible.

It's hard work to read something so unpolished, so unfinished, and see the potential in it. Harder still to help them achieve that potential.

Here are the big things I had to work on:

1. ⁠Plot Buff

Unsurprisingly, there were lots of scenes that needed big changes. Some were just bare bones of the action or dialogue, needing more setting or world-building elements.

Other scenes needed to be added to adjust the pacing or add more tension.

In the end, I had a long editing punch list including:

• Change character arc for [redacted]

• Add in more scenes and tension in Part 2

• Flesh out all of the ending climax scenes

• Fix many, many plot holes
  

2. ⁠Romantic Adjustment

You know something isn't right when half of your readers fall for the random guy in the first part that isn't even the love interest. Sure, Grimms has some charisma, but Silence is supposed to steal your heart.

The question was -- what was going wrong?

This took a lot of edits. I added scenes, adjusted some of the insta-love, added in more romantic tension and moments of connection.

I stopped describing Silence exclusively using the word "hot."

3. ⁠Give Fewer Fucks

This still makes me laugh. Yes, almost every single reader mentioned that I could, potentially, tone done my swearing.

And they weren't wrong.

If you've read any of SNOW & SILENCE, you'll know that Snow is a voice-y AF. Yup, she loves a good f-bomb. And so do I. But apparently, sleep-deprived postpartum Alessandra went a little overboard.

I started to cut back and think more about Snow's voice.

Beta Readers & Line-Edits

Then I opened up for beta readers.

I had a much stronger manuscript after developmental edits. It was about 30,000 words longer, to start, but also the pacing and tension and characterization had improved.

My beta readers were another amazing group of writers. In addition, I worked with Demi at Amethyst Ink Editorial.

This time, the feedback was different. I wasn't getting huge, manuscript-ripping changes. I was getting tweaks for my prose to make the manuscript stronger with only a few large-scale suggestions.

Perfect.

1. Set the Scene

Okay, so this seems obvious after the fact, but setting is a huge part of a fantasy novel.

I love world-building. And I did a lot of this in SPELL WEAVER, my first manuscript. But because I pantsed so much of this novel, writing off the cuff, I had a lot of places where I never set the scene for the reader.

Luckily, this was an easy fix. A lot of the setting elements are clear in my head, but just never got down on paper. In other places, it was fun to go through and make up some of the setting that I didn't have time for when I was originally drafting.

2. Feel Your Feelings

My therapist will love this one. Turns out, I'm really great at noting emotions but not so great at describing emotions.

Good thing I wrote an emotionally out-of-touch narrator, right?

Still, there were a lot of times where the story became much stronger when I added emotional and physical responses to a situation. Even better when I could show how Snow was ignoring or repressing that emotion in the moment.

Again, these are little changes on the line level that have made such a difference to the final product.

3. The Perfect Ending

The end of the book is where everything needs to come together. And let me tell you, it is NOT an easy feat to make all the little threads work in your favor when you made them all up as you went.

After a brainstorming session with one of my ultra talented writing friends, we landed on a very cool idea to fix the pacing at the end of the book, building tension and connecting to some earlier scenes with other characters. It was brilliant and so exciting. I couldn't wait to chop up the chapters and write my new scene.

Final Thoughts:

My original manuscript sparked a lot of joy. It's such an incredible accomplishment to write THE END. To reach the final words of your novel and breathe a sigh of relief.

But editing can bring a lot of joy as well. Sometimes you have to kill those darlings, cutting words, sentences, or even scenes from your work. It's just part of the job.

Every time I edit, I learn more about the craft. I learn more about what is working and what isn't. Where I am strongest and where I am weakest as a writer.

I am so proud of my query package and so excited for this story. SNOW & SILENCE has already gotten some interest, and I can't wait to see where it goes next.

If you want to see more of the journey, follow me on Instagram @aspauldingauthor.