Editing a First Novel
Reviewing and editing Jake Doe Burning Bright was very much a family affair. I didn’t hire a professional editor (update - not exactly, see note at the bottom!).
Maybe I’ll learn that decision was a mistake, but I don’t think so for this first book. I wanted to own every passage, every word. I wanted to learn and grow as a writer, and editor myself, as I waded back over the story and the pages numerous times. Now book readers and critics care nothing about my process. They just want a good story. But if any of them ever read this post, hopefully they’ll appreciate the reason for any rawness they may have discovered in the prose. And, who knows, I may get some professional advice for edits in a later edition. I’m certainly not closed off to that idea.
But instead, for this first edition, I leaned on some really smart family members for input. As I said in my first and second Acknowledgments at the end of the book, my sweet sister and my parents were essential to the process. I referred to my sister at the tip of the editing spear. That’s a difficult job! They all caught some mistakes and also challenged some choices I made in telling the story that a part of me already knew were risky. Their input all along the way was valuable. My Dad’s vision doesn’t allow him to read much any more, so we’d have a reading aloud session of some especially difficult passage or scene. He would, without fail, jump in and challenge a word choice or a phrase. And then after a minute or two, he’d have an idea that was almost always better than my choice. Truly amazing doing that without seeing the words!
My three sons are all very busy but were supportive and instrumental as well. Number one reviewed an early draft of the first three chapters and incisively exposed my weaknesses as a writer. I was humbled into acknowledging my foibles and vowed to learn and improve. He did me a big favor. Meanwhile, number two provided steady and positive encouragement as he’s prone to do. He was working on his own exciting personal project, and I was able to offer the same back to him.
Then there was number three, a mere nineteen years old and a freshman in college, who had too many fun and exciting things going on to give much attention to his old Dad’s novel. But when he did, he came at me like a guitar soloist in front of a packed stadium. He challenged the authenticity of character dialogue, caught mistakes everyone else had missed, suggested radical changes in punctuation, and even convinced me—very late in the game—to change where one chapter ended and another one began. He was right on most all his suggestions. Just incredible. He would make a fantastic book editor one day but instead is majoring in Physics. Another one of those math science kids…
So the Trimble family all pitched in and helped bring the book to life. And my former sister-in-law, a published writer and kind soul, also reviewed a couple of things I was worried about. I’d be remiss not to mention her, because her generally positive words gave me some confidence and a lift.
Creating the book together with all these loved ones was fun. If you’re able to pursue a passion project and involve the people you love, then you’ve struck a vein of gold.
Update, April 18: Oh, the follies of a first-time author… While the Trimble family is very smart and filled with capable writers, none of us — myself included — are professional book editors. So I wisened up and hired one: Clara. She is extremely good at her job and is putting a final coat of express polish on the novel before I publish to a group of Advance Reader Copy readers ahead of the June 1 launch date. You have Clara to thank that “suddenly” doesn’t appear, unnecessarily, thirty times in the story!