–The first entry needs work. A LOT of work. Interestingly the very next day’s work is just fine and pretty close to what I was aiming for. So perhaps that means that I’m getting better at openings! Heh.
–It remains in the eldest sister’s point of view for most of the first third until I suddenly go into multiple first-person POV. [They have their own chapter or scene, so I can easily slap a chapter header on there to help the reader.] Which is fine, because I did that on purpose. I’d written multiple partial scenes before starting this draft which are in other POVs. I purposely left gaps in this section to insert them in.
–As expected, many characters aren’t quite nailed down until about a quarter of the way in. [For instance, I had Zuze’s sister Trischa be younger and weaker in the opening, but later on she’s older and more of a badass.] Thankfully this too is easy to fix, with a bit of revision and rewriting. Nothing that will ultimately unravel the story for me.
–I need to nail down the rules of magic just a bit more, as they seem a bit too bendy for my tastes at the moment. They make sense for the most part, though there are a few moments where they kind of drift into MacGuffin territory. Again, easily fixed.
–I have exactly two characters that started out with promising fates, and I kind of forgot about following through. That tends to happen a lot when I have far too much fun writing the other characters! Again, easily fixed.
–The Antagonist/Evil Overlord/Bad Guy needs to be reined in just a tad bit. This one might be tricky, as his character is very much a reactive, calm-but-insane sort of dude. The balance here is to show him acting in what he fully believes is logical and right, but others seeing him as completely batshit dangerous. The good thing is that I have him nailed down already, so I just need to work backwards to fix his earlier scenes.
–Secondary Antagonist needs to have her backstory straightened out. She too is nailed down at this point, so it’s just her earlier scenes I need to revise.
Thankfully, that’s all I found (so far) that needs work. I don’t plan on doing any of this revision just yet, as I’d like take the next few weeks to finish the novel. All the revision, cleanup and post-production will take place in July, and maybe into August if it’s needed. I’m thinking the drop date at this point will be mid-September.
The tricky part here is paying attention.
I call it such, because whenever I do a ‘read what I have so far’ session, I try to remember all the fiddly bits that might need work. It’s a mix of self-critique and a line edit. I pay attention to my reaction to certain passages. I see a scene and remember how it’ll tie in with another scene further on. I’ll also think about the story as a whole. It’s kind of a giant jigsaw puzzle where I keep tabs on the image shown on every single piece. What seems weak or out of place will get the revision.
I should probably add that I do the copy-edit and the proofread during the e-book formatting sessions. That’s where I’ll distance myself from the story a bit more and look at it as a reader than a writer. That’s usually when the formatting and editing errors pop up, and those are the easiest to fix. And once I’m happy all around, that’s when I’ll upload it to the publishing site and set a drop date.
So yeah… being a self-published author who wishes to do everything himself, there’s a lot of hats to wear. I have to be vigilant and professional while working on a hell of a lot of different moving parts. It’s definitely not for everyone, and I would not blame you for not wanting to take the insane route I chose. But it can be done.
A lot of it really is about paying attention.
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