What I Learned From My Editor

The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it. - Ernest Hemingway

But, perhaps, the hardest part about writing a novel is editing it. Polishing it. Perfecting it.

At least it was for me.

Hiring a professional editor was a choice that I wavered about for months and months. While I would have absolutely no issue hiring one if I was going the self-publishing route, I'm still planning to attempt the trad publishing world. And there is no need for professional editing prior to the querying process.

But after a personal endorsement of Jo Mercer, I decided to give her a try.

And I'm so glad I did.

I am a self-taught debut author. I'm not currently published. And all the skills I have come from reading libraries worth of fantasy books, writing stories since childhood, and learning general principles of narrative development as a speech pathologist. Learning foreign languages has also been key for supporting my grammar knowledge (although I'd say I've always been a bit of a grammar nerd). But otherwise, I've never taken a writing class or learned the 'craft' of writing a novel.

Hiring an editor helped me approach my novel in new ways. Some of Jo's suggestions were developmental -- thinking about my characters and story in a more analytical framework. Other suggestions were more specific ways to clean up my writing for smaller edits.

Spell Weaver began as an idea and started to exist after leaving a particularly traumatic job situation. I was unemployed and writing in my local cafe when it hit me -- I fucking love to write. I love creating new worlds, building religions, and crafting stories. And I was finding myself and my happiness again.

But that also meant that Spell Weaver didn't begin with the most solid of plans. Yes, I'm generally a plantser -- I plotted out the general plot fairly early on in the first draft of Spell Weaver. But as an untrained author, I didn't have the beats down. I had never heard of 'Save the Cat'. I didn't even know about Scrivener yet!

So after many (many, many, many) rounds of edits, I was still struggling to see the bigger picture. And I was finding it hard to make changes -- big and small -- that would change my manuscript significantly for the better.

That's why having an editor was the right choice for me. I thought of it as an investment in my craft. A way to learn my own personal tics, challenges, and strengths. A way to see where my story needed to grow. And how to accomplish it.

Because next time, I don't plan to make the same mistakes again.

Or, perhaps more realistically, I'll make those same mistakes. And then I'll fix them myself. Because now I know how.

Biggest Lessons

After receiving hundreds of in-line comments, a ten-page edit letter, and a zoom call with Jo, I think it's clear that I learned a lot more than what is in this blog post. However, here are the three main take-aways that I will continue to use in my writing for all my manuscripts to come.

1. ⁠Light That Fire

Okay, so this seems obvious after the fact, but your job as an author is to put your characters INTO the fire. Typically, as much as possible.

And I say this seems obvious and yet many times during my novel, I avoided conflict for my characters. I had them safely away from the really dangerous events. I had other characters doing the gritty actions and reflected on their feelings after the fact.

This was a particularly challenging concept for me with my character Elysa, who is -- purposefully -- a passive, conflict-avoidant character. It's her thing. She's anxious and timid and unsure of her skills. So every time there was an option to leave her out of the action, I did it.

Jo helped me see that Elysa was never taking agency in her journey. Things happened around her, to her, but never because of her. And this is not as compelling for a point-of-view character.

Now, as I'm going through my new work-in-progress, I'm always looking for ways to light that fire. I want to get my characters in as much chaos as possible. And then let's see what they do!

2. Don't Get Stage Fright

Somewhat similar, I found that I was putting a lot of scenes and events off-page. Then, I would have the character reflect on what had happened, sometimes even with a long flashback.

Part of this was the common challenge of dealing with an epic fantasy plot involving many point-of-view characters. It's hard to line them all up chronologically. Jumping through time and place means sometimes things have to happen off-page.

But every time they can happen in real time for the reader, they should. And Jo was amazing at helping me see that in my own writing. Keep your characters on their stage! Let them perform for the reader and keep them glued to the edge of their seat.

3. Go Big or Go Home

Sometimes, as an author, you know things aren't working quite right, but you are hesitant to do a complete overhaul of your work.

Yup, I get it. Been there.

Jo showed me that sometimes it's worth entertaining big, crazy ideas even if you don't end up going through with all of them.

In our call, we talked a lot about my point-of-view characters and how we could cut down the book to a more manageable debut size. Part of this conversation included some big changes. Here are some of the things we discussed:

• Push all the chapters for one character to book 2

• Change a point-of-view character from a girl to a boy

• Get rid of a point-of-view character completely and add a different one

• Redo the entire climax to get more characters at the scene

Now, I realize these general bullet points may not seem crazy to you. But I assure you that as an author, this is like telling me to destroy my favorite piece of art or give away a pet. It's heartbreaking. These are my little character babies. How can I get rid of them? Their scenes?

Stop making me change things. I hate change. Please stop.

But after I had sat with the feedback and discussion for a while, I started to think about what I could do and what I wouldn't do. Being open-minded was key.

Turns out, I did actually remove that character and put him in book 2. He has a short cameo in Spell Weaver but his plot will begin in book 2. I also redid the climax to incorporate more characters -- that editing was fun and challenging and insane. And I changed one point-of-view character from a young girl to a young boy. My two younger female point of views were overlapping a bit, so changing it up helped balance the voices in my story.

But I wouldn't get rid of one of my characters completely. That wasn't the story I wanted to tell. And that's okay.

Final Thoughts:

Getting an editor certainly isn't necessary for every author or even every manuscript. (Unless they are self-publishing in which case, yes, please, get another set of eyes on your work. Preferably several times!)

For me, this decision was an investment in myself and my craft. And I'm so excited to see my skills building every day. My new work-in-progress only has 15K words so far, and I can already see the improvements in my drafting.

If you are interested in checking out Jo Mercer's editing services, you can find her @jmerceredits or at https://jmercerbooks.com.