Happy Friday, indie author extraordinaire! We've just wrapped up our 7-day crash course on editing, and boy, wasn't it something? If you've made it this far without pulling out any hair, give yourself a pat on the back.
Now, let's take a moment to loosen up and talk about the funnier side of editing your first draft. These are actual issues my editor has had with my novels, and I asked him the top 5 mistakes he's seen in my books. You know what they say, laughter is the best medicine, even for an editing hangover.
Unraveling the Mystery of Missing Words
Did your characters start making less sense than an echidna at a knitting party? And it was only because 'not', 'is', and 'the' decided to play hooky? You're not alone. Welcome to the Bermuda Triangle of novel editing! This is where perfectly good words disappear into thin air, leaving behind sentences like, "He walked dog park."
Plot Holes So Big, They Have Their Own Gravitational Pull
Ever read back over your first draft and found a plot hole so huge it could swallow a trilogy? You thought you were writing a cozy mystery and suddenly, without explanation, you're in a sci-fi alien invasion. Plot twist! Don’t sweat it though, it's all part of the magic.
The What Was I Thinking? Club
Raise your hand if you've read a line in your first draft and wondered if you were temporarily possessed by a melodramatic soap opera writer. "Her tears were as salty as the seven seas, and they fell like rain from the heavens above, for she had run out of coffee." Oscar-worthy, truly.
Doppelgängers and Identity Crises
Remember when your hero 'John' was also sometimes 'Jack', 'Joan', and that one time 'Jambalaya'? It's always a fun detective hunt trying to track down which name was the real one. Or was it all just a cunning plot for John to live out his dreams of a multiple personality disorder?
Where's That Spellchecker?
How about when 'public' lost its 'L', or when 'beach' became a 'bitch'? Typos and autocorrects have a habit of gate-crashing the most serious scenes and turning them into comedy gold.
Editing a first draft is a journey, full of facepalms and chuckles. But remember, every great author once looked at their first draft and thought, "Holy Thesaurus, what have I done?" You're in good company.
Keep calm, edit on, and remember: it's supposed to be fun. After all, you're creating worlds from scratch. If you can't have a little fun with it, who can?
-Andrew
The Indie Author Method
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