Second sight.

This place tastes of fear. It has seeped into the walls, and with every breath, it fills me.

Bad things have happened here.

Bad things to bad people.

Less than a week after I dragged myself out of the writing cave, I was pulled into my editing hole.

It's dark and lonely in here.

Please send help.

Just kidding. Everything is fine and dandy. Kind of. I'm actually excited to be editing again because I much prefer it to drafting. Usually. But these revisions are hard.

If you've been following this blog for awhile, you may remember one of the books I wrote last year, which is called The Silagree. The idea for the book came to me suddenly at the end of August, and I wrote it in two big bursts, finishing it at the end of the year.

Now, I love this story, but it's already been through several rounds of edits, and I really want to get it right this time. While the story will remain pretty much the same, I'm making some big changes, which is always hard.

I had no idea where to start.

Thankfully, a friend recently sent me this:

Cheryl Klein is the senior editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, and from what I can gather, this book is a collection of blog posts and conference talks about editing/revising pulled together in one handy location.

It's been a lifesaver.

Sure, a lot of it I already kind of know, but clear, reaffirmation always helps.

One of the things I was struggling with before I began these edits, was how to further develop the emotional core of the story and really push the relationships to a higher level. There was one section in Second Sight (Muddles, Morals, and Making it Through) which discussed character worksheets.

Now, I've never been a big fan of these, but this one was simple: write down what your character LOVES, HATES, NEEDS, WANTS, FEARS, and then, for each category, answer the question WHY?

It was really interesting--not to mention helpful--to get these details in writing. I always knew what they were, but I wasn't thinking about them enough.

Another section that jumped out at me was this: ...stories should always start with and are driven by characters. You may not be able to fill the values chart out from the very beginning -- usually you will discover those things about your characters as you're writing along. But once you have a first draft, you might use the chart to better define who your character is and where you want him/her to go.

And this is so true for me. I never really know my characters until I've at least got the first draft down. With the characters of The Silagree, I feel like, only now that I'm really digging deep, am I beginning to understand them. Once I worked out who my characters really were, the solutions to the plot problems were obvious.

Which was such a relief.

I still have a lot of work to do, but I feel like I'm finally pushing ahead in the right direction.

Hopefully.

As for Second Sight, my copy is already filled with highlighted passages and post-it notes. If you're someone looking for some editing help, I can't recommend it enough!

Back to the editing hole!