It has been awhile.
And for good reason.
Not only did my second book release in March, but I stepped into (more like fell into) one of the biggest developmental editing projects of my entire life. Even from future books. I’m clocking it. Nothing will ever compare to this experience because it was the first time for myself and the four other women involved so we had to blaze the path for ourselves from nothing.
In December, during the editing for Unraveling, I found out that my editor was no longer able to take on my third book for developmental editing for health reasons.
I was suddenly on an island, in the middle of nowhere on a blazing hot, cloudless day.
I’d had a line and copy edit already lined up for August and a release date set on the schedule around my day job (because releasing a book during school sports season when you work with nine high schools and nine middle schools would be like navigating a Category 6 hurricane in the middle of the ocean).
I didn’t know what to do. Could I developmentally edit my own book? Probably. I know other authors that do it with great success before passing it off to alpha, beta, then an editor for line.
But… I knew something wasn’t connecting right.
After I wrapped developmental on Unraveling, I sat down and did my first read through of ROC3 and something felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Once Unraveling’s line edits were done. I put it aside for a few weeks like I did with Daughters, because hands off, eyes off, make for a better proof read before ARCs and that final edit.
In that time, I did another read through of ROC3, factoring in the self-edits I made in the first read, but I only got more frustrated.
What was wrong with this story? Where was the disconnect happening?
I reached out to an editor friend of mine and asked if they could just skim through the manuscript and make any notes of where something may feel lacking, or worse.
From there, it morphed into something pretty wild, and totally fun.
We recruited a long time author we both knew from the traditional world, a freelance writing friend, and another friend who reads probably a book a day (no joke, she’s the Queen Book Gremlin, I swear).
It was almost like a buddy read on steroids. There was feedback, there was group chats throughout the day working out fine details, bouncing ideas back and forth about what may work better in some spots, moving chapters around, have I considered doing a flashback scene?
Sometimes it felt like I was on the therapy couch with four therapists staring back at me, asking why I wrote a particular scene or chapter in the way that I did. Then as I explained, it was broken down bit by bit until my brain was like, “Oh. Hey, wait a minute. THIS would work so much better like this.”
It was a painstaking process. We ripped the manuscripts down to the barebones almost, examining each layer as we went.
Then, it came down to implementing all the shifts/changes, and new additions.
(And cutting nearly 10,000 words of… utter trash)
I wrapped all of the edits about a week ago, and now I’m awaiting my book print proof. It was a process I added to Unraveling and found it to be incredibly beneficial, so I’m always going to add this step in.
I was worried I wouldn’t be on track for line edits in August, but the lemons made the tastiest lemonade and I see a ship approaching my island’s harbor, coming to whisk me away to safety.
But that’s not the best part. It was the way that we all came together, the way I felt so supported in this process, in a way that I haven’t felt yet on this journey.
We’re in this together.
H.S. Sillivan 