More like a black comedy. Like The Cable Guy, with Jim Carrey playing the role of my manuscript and Matthew Broderick playing the role of me. It started off as the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And then shit got real cah-ray-zee. Lol. But it all ended well (the second draft anyway, I’m still working on edits) and I wouldn’t change a thing about the process.
When I wrote Sunday, The Fifth Day and Gabriel (now #1 Crush, Book One of Loose Ends) a few years back I was essentially on my own. Yes, I had friends read over my work in my excitement to share before posting it online. But, that was more “I finished it what do you think?!” than true editing or beta reading. Not long after I finished Sunday, I started publishing with a start-up press that was more concerned with pushing out my work as quickly as possible. So, I had my work looked over when I began publishing, but not like this.
When I finally decided that I was going to publish the Loose Ends series, I knew I needed an editor, especially for the short story Gabriel. I’m so glad that Jacquelyn Fox at Happy Endings Editing was willing and able to tackle my bad habits and I look forward to seeing what the story looks like as a completed project.
The story Gabriel was always meant to be a free read, a one-off story. In the midst of writing it, I found myself straddling the line between the desire to expand the story, and the need to keep it contained so it could take Sunday’s place as a free online read. The result was a sexy story, but it wasn’t a cohesive start to the series. There was this lingering sense of possibilities unfulfilled, of characters that hadn’t reached their full potential. For both the leads and for me as a writer, the story was full of loose ends (ha ha) begging to be tied. Hence the title of the series (at the time it was the title for the sequel to Gabriel, an online serial with a whopping 14 chapters total).
Having just come off the heels of writing cocky bad boy Flynn (Sunday) and golden boy Justin (The Fifth Day), I wanted to shift a bit and write about a charming up and coming musician, a great guy who just so happens to be a rough, demanding dominant in the bedroom. But, even perfect Gabriel Roberts has his issues and demons. And instead of a girl that has it together but is struggling with lust and love like Gia (Sunday), or a woman who has a shield around her heart like Alyse (The Fifth Day), I wanted to write about someone who approaches life and love like a butterfly: mercurial and floating through experiences, unsure but still having fun. Enter Nicole Langley and my take on what happens when fantasy meets reality.
The experience of truly editing for the first time opened my eyes to what can be accomplished when you dig deep after churning out the first draft. I’m gonna be honest, though. At first, the process of editing this story and making it better than its original incarnation was a thrill. I could go back in time! I could surprise those that read it over and over again by adding new scenes, tightening things up! I could make it my sharpest piece yet, give it a gorgeous cover. This was the start of a new phase as an author!
The honeymoon phase lasted about a week. Then I was like, “fuck me, man…why didn’t I write this all in one motherfucking tense…I don’t like this new scene. Okay, I actually love this new scene. Ugh. I’ve been staring at this too long. I’m hungry/sleepy/gonna go out…I’ll come back to it. I can’t do anything else until I conquer this section. Oh, thesaurus, what would I do without you…”
Despite all the internal angst, I learned soooo much wonderful stuff about the craft. I learned about head hopping and where I was being repetitive. I learned about where it would be great to show instead of tell, because now I had the space to expand scenes. I also learned how to combat my own inertia when I got overwhelmed with reconstructing something that heretofore was “done”. I’m used to churning things out, tap dancing on the fly, because that’s what you do when you’re writing an online serial in quick succession. I’m not someone that agonizes forever over a particular passage or is never satisfied enough to share it. As a writer that’s a wonderful gift to have, because it frees you to tell the story before writer’s block sets in. You get into that zone and things flow.
Editing was another challenge entirely, it’s a different kind of zone. It meant being patient and fixing everything as a whole before sharing it. It meant methodical construction of a sentence, knowing my characters well enough to answer questions using scenes instead of a line here or there. It meant putting the Writer away so that I could truly give the Editor room to move the way I hadn’t given it room to move before.
The result was a wonderful exercise for me. Now #1 Crush isn’t just a prequel, but the start of a series set for a tentative release this December. I got to see how I can push myself a bit, and ultimately I hope that translates into an immersive reading experience for those that loved this story and those that will be reading it for the first time ever. And hopefully this first introduction to editing will help me wrangle the beast more gracefully in the future.
Well, gracefully might be a strong word. I’m still gonna swill coffee and cuss like a sailor and want to throw my laptop at a wall. I’m probably going to take a break one day and then greet the sunrise after an all-night editing bender the next. That’s how I do, I’m all over the place, still learning to tame the beast. Lol. But, when I edit next time around I will do so as a person understanding and embracing the process that helps take your work to the next level.
