Release the Kraken... Editor!

You suffered through the first draft. You struggled and sweated. You bled as you beat your head against writers block. You wept acid tears as your characters did what they wanted and not what you wanted. In the end, after months (or years) of effort, you produced a bouncing baby book.

You were happy. You were relieved. Even a little sad. The hard part was over.

Or so you thought.

Editing is like dealing with a two-year-old. Or herding cats. Now you have to tackle your novel and wrestle it into a coherent form. The Grammar monster laughs at you. The Spelling Bee throws darts at you. Cargo ships are flying through your plot holes. The internal editor you had gagged during the draft process is free to tell you that you suck.

If you can afford a professional editor, then do it. But if you are like me (dirt poor) there are ways to get you through. A writing group is a huge help. I sent Shadow Watch to my writer's workshop and they combed through my baby and eviscerated it. Going through all their comments one by one was a big part of the editing process.

Sometimes you're going to have to let go of things. That scene you thought was perfect doesn't belong. You have to add scenes in order to make the rest make sense. You have to scale back on a scene to make it fit the plot.

In my case I have to go through each chapter four times. Three for the critiques and one for myself. A lot of work? Absolutely. But in the end I have a novel I can be proud of.