Thanksgiving writing retreat — and a dilemma

I am well on my way through day 2 of my second edit of Whose Hearts are Mountains (while waiting for Thanksgiving buffet at 11) and I’m left with a dilemma.

Do I send Voyageurs to my developmental editor first, or do I send Whose Hearts are Mountains?

The arguments in favor of Voyageurs:

It’s older than Whose Hearts are Mountains
It’s a romance novel, and I think it could get published as such
It really deserves a dev edit

The arguments in favor of Whose Hearts are Mountains:

It’s fresher and might be a better novel because of what I’ve learned
It’s not romance (I think it’s contemporary fantasy) and I don’t become pigeon-holed as a romance writer
It also deserves a dev edit
It’s part of an established series (which hasn’t been published yet)

(*anguished scream*) I hate to decide!

For all of you who celebrate US Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving! For those of you who do not, my best wishes and support to you.

The Developmental Edit

I’ve just gone through a developmental edit on Prodigies.

Developmental edits are not like copy edits, where someone proofreads and questions word choices. It’s a lot more thorough, and looks at things like pacing, distracting techniques, etc. A second pair of skilled eyes to look over my work and find the problems.

It’s not cheap, but if you’re serious about getting published and you like having more work to do on your pet project, it’s highly advisable.

My editor, Chelsea Harper, is a skilled developmental editor. She not only picked out all the things that nagged in the back of my mind (and couldn’t put words to), but she found some issues I hadn’t picked up, like too many scene breaks. And she told me something important that I hadn’t guessed:

I should be submitting my work to agents in literary fiction (or edit it extensively for fewer big words, which I don’t think I can do.)

Yes, I was told that my words are too big before (hi, Sheri!) but I didn’t think my writing had what it took for literary fiction. I thought that was the sole province of English professors about High Concepts. Maybe I’m writing crossover fiction — same difference; I may just be querying the wrong agents.

I don’t know where that’s going to get me, but it’s something.

Deep breath. I’ve gotten five rejections from Mythos. It might be a good reason to eventually give that to a developmental editor as well. I think we need a developmental edit money pool. Or a Mega Millions win.

Developmental editing

In a neverending quest to learn about what I’m doing as a writer (and hopefully get published), I am sending the latest copyedited manuscript for Prodigies (this is the one I needed the Polish translation for, Marcel) to a developmental editor.

Whereas a proofreader reads for punctuation and grammatical mistakes, and a copy editor goes a little deeper into confusing and awkward sentences, a developmental editor reads for bigger pictures — flow, characterization, troublesome developments, places you lose the reader.

I don’t know how this will turn out, but I want to get to the bottom of why I’m not finding an agent, and the idea is for me to get as smooth and refined as possible.

I must be out of my depression, because I’m once again believing that maybe, just maybe I can get published someday.

Pushing toward growth.

I have one condition I need to fulfill before I keep writing — well, maybe 2 — a developmental editor and beta-readers for my finished books.

I need to find beta-readers. This is a difficult task, although my beta-reader for Voyageurs, Sheri Roush, is doing a wonderful job of pointing out where my book gets confusing and where it’s really working.

I need to find money in the budget for developmental editing.

I need to find beta readers.

Would you like to be a beta reader? Let me know!