In Which I Talk About the Coffee Magnate and Self-Editing

So, the Coffee Magnate has been sent to my editor for a thorough pummeling…I mean read through. After which I’m sure THERE WILL BE BLOOD!! *Cough* I mean, thoughtful revisions.

I think I learn something new with every MS (because I have LOTS to learn!) and I think I learned a lot on this one, even pre-revisions. First off, I think I actually hit a level of competent self-editing. Not level Grand Sparkalay Amazeballs or anything, but, y’know, I had SOME sense of self-editing.

That’s been a struggle for me in general, because I tend to get very lost in the MS as I write it, and I start losing perspective. I know most everyone does to a certain degree but I feel like after writing the MS and giving it a couple of reads I end up like DID I EVEN WRITE THIS IN ENGLISH!!!??? Then I hit send filled with WOE and BLAH because I have on clue if I even Wrote A Book or if I Wrote Something That Would Be More At Home on the Back of a Cereal Box.

The whole writing of this MS was different in some ways. First off, I basically chucked the characters into bed from the get go. It was the wrong thing to do, and it’s what led to the self edits. So I did this thing where I threw them into a physical relationship too early and as I went along, I started really seeing that.

This MS was a friends to lovers story, which I’d never done before, and it presented some unique challenges. The getting-to-know-you wasn’t present. So it was bringing a close relationship into a different kind of close relationship and that made the structure all sorts of different too.

Which is why I rush on the bedroom scene. Partly. The other part being general impatience on my end. 😛 But I realized I needed to SHOW a bit more of the relationship that I knew they had in order for the step Into The Bedroom to mean something to the readers.

Cue me going back and adding scenes. Then I continued on with the book and realized I needed more before they kissed for the first time. *goes back and fixes*

And on and on it went with this MS. I was writing these really dramatic scenes that I essentially hadn’t laid the foundation for. So that meant dashing back to the beginning and building it Real The Heck Quick so that it didn’t fall over.

Normally I write beginning to end without leaving scenes out, and really, I didn’t leave scenes out on purpose, but this was still a different process for me. I really enjoyed it in the end though, because I felt like I hit these really key emotional scenes, and I was then able to go back and write TO them and make sure I had the proper set up.

We’ll see if this process actually worked out, but I had fun with it, and I think it was one of those valuable growing/learning experiences.

Oh, and now I get to start dreaming about my new hero…Russian bodyguard anyone?