The final round of edits.
In my last blog, I wrote about reading the first draft of your book. Getting to see the story you created in its full glory. Or close to that. Because a book is never finished after the first draft. Many rounds of editing will have to happen before a book is truly done.
The first round of edits is by far the most exciting one. You have your written story already, but the structure is so unsteady that you can make rough edits. Cut entire chapters. Create new ones. Change characters’ names, change the way they react, the way the story progresses. You can change whatever you want, because it doesn’t have to be polished yet. You just have to make the puzzle pieces fit. Make sure that the carcass of the story is what you want to tell.
After that come the more dreadful rounds of editing. The ones that take by far the longest and will make you question why you ever even started writing the book. Endless days of staring at the same pages, wondering what is missing. You will rewrite sentences and scenes, just to make the story better. You will know every part of the story by heart. Several rounds of edits pass.
But that is not where it ends.
Then comes the last round of edits. This does not come naturally. You will always find something that you want to change. Little things. But there has to be a moment when you say: this is the last round of editing, after this, it is done. Because if you don’t, the book will never be finished.
This is by far the hardest round of edits. You will want to do it quickly, as most of the story is standing steadily. But as soon as you have read a part, that tiny bit of fear creeps up on you. What if it is not good enough? And so you go back, read it again. Perhaps change one word. Then you finish the scene. And you think again: is it good enough?
The fear is that you can not touch it after the last round of edits. Of course, you could. But then the book will never be finished. It is a boundary created by you, to make sure that the book will, at some point, actually be done. It would be a shame to leave the book in the editing phase too long. Before you know, you lose your motivation to work on it. The moment you can recite the entire story from memory. Then, you will never know if the story will ever see the light of day. If you will ever come back to “finish” it. So you will stop before then.
I’m currently working on the last round of edits. Forcing myself not to question every little decision I have made. Trust that the story has something to tell. Make sure that it will see the light of day and not be pushed to the side. The last stretch of actually writing the book.
But that is not where it ends. There is way more to publishing a book than simply writing it. But I will discuss that once I’ve finished the last round of edits.
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