Now that I've officially finished my NaNo novel, I decided to go ahead and start the editing process. I ended up completely re-writing my entire beginning.
WHAT?? WHY??
The old one was crap. Seriously. And not just "Oh, I just wrote this so I'm feeling a little self-conscious about it." No, it was REALLY crappy. It started off with a disgruntled phone call between my main character and another character that ended up completely disappearing from the rest of my story. Her name should have been M.I.A. because that's pretty much what she was; Missing In Action. There was a ridiculously artificial dialogue that made absolutely no sense with the rest of the story so I decided to completely re-do the beginning. I was really scared that it wasn't going to work out and that I was going to end up screwing up my story and my word count but it actually worked really well. So well, in fact, that it ended up changing my story. While it's still a murder mystery, the method of murder and mystery has changed. And I think it's actually improved my story which makes me very excited!!!
I've also had a new character emerge. He really kind of appeared just as a "filler". I needed a quick character at the time and he decided he was the man for the job. But I like him so much that I decided to keep him around and he's blossomed into one of the main characters. This also makes my story a lot stronger because unbeknownst to the author (me) he and my Main and my Villain all have history. (This new character is also kind of sexy and is full of secrets so he's lots of fun!)
Aside from the beginning re-write, editing is going kind of slow. I keep getting distracted by my gigantic "to-read" list that has been neglected for a while. I really want to get this story published but I'm not going to rush the editing process. I think some time away from my story might actually do some good because then I've had a chance to fill my head full of lots of other things besides my characters and all of their issues. I've heard that it's better to take some time away from your story to edit it. In this case, I think it's the best idea because I'm so close to these characters that it's hard to get them out of my head even when I'm thinking about day-to-day stuff. We shall see how it will work out.
How is NaNo working out for you? Have you made your word count yet? What are your thoughts on the editing process?
