Editing, editing, editing!

I have about 160 pages left to edit for KM4. It's been going smoothly (when I sit down and do it that is). I suppose that's because each book was easier for me to write, so the later ones have a little less work. It still takes me a good chunk of time though. This is the first real edit that KM4, and the others, have had. When I was posting chapters to FictionPress, I simply read them over quickly and posted--typos be damned! It's kinda nice to revisit these stories 5+ years after writing them. It's my hope that I am improving them somewhat....

Anyway, I hope to carve out sixty pages this weekend, but we'll see. I'm starting to wonder if I'll be done with the edit this month or if it'll be April. I'm not going to rush it. Rushing leads to typos and little errors that I don't like reading about when people leave reviews. So, I'm going to try my best with this one. After KM4 is done, I might take a little break and work on something else. I've been doing a little hand editing of A SPIRIT KEEPER, the first book in my planned trilogy. Reading the characters makes me a little excited about starting to work on those books again. I still feel like it's too long, but I might continue to push forward with it. I mean, if an agent doesn't want it, I'll put it online. At least that way it'll be read and won't just sit on my computer.

However, even thought I feel like working on something new, I still need to go back to KM1 and do one more extensive edit. I totally rushed that book and it deserves a little more attention. It was the first novel I ever completed... I wrote the first half without a plan and then planned the second half (so I would finish it). While I think I smoothed out the plot, I know there's more work to be done. I might actually print that one out and work on it that way. Sometimes you miss a lot of stuff when you work on a screen.

Which brings me to something else: Curbing my need to change things based off feedback (often negative) that I receive. I think studying fiction and being in a workshop like setting helped me learn to sit on things for a few days to ponder (or fester) before taking action. If I didn't, I'd change everything just so that people would like my work. I can't please everyone. I know this as a writer, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to. In general, I love all forms of feedback (as long as they're constructive). I feel like I learn a lot from readers and other writers. I guess that's the important thing.

Oh, remember my writing goal? It's been two months... *sigh*