Channeling Julia Childs? When to begin the editing process

When you finish cooking something, a roast for instance, quite often you'll let it "rest" after you've taken it out of the oven to finish cooking. Or sometimes with baking, the cooling period is part of the cooking process, giving the creation a chance to set. Or gel. Well, you get the idea.

While I'm always eager to present my work as a finished product, I'm in that "resting" period to give it a chance to breathe. Part of me wants to plunge ahead with the next project, part of me wants to jump into editing mode, and yet another part of me needs to take a mental breather. I'm still in deadline season at the day job, and these next two weeks are going to be mayhem, so the smart thing to do is step away from the story. The distance provides a fresh perspective. I will forget parts of the story in the time I spend away from it, and as I go back to edit, I'll be more likely to see things I need to fix. With the distractions of deadlines, it's too easy to overlook important details.

Stephen King advises taking a month after you've reached "the end" the first time. The time gives you perspective. You move out of the creative mode and into the critical mode which is so essential to the editing process. Questions like "does this move the story along?" "Can this sentence be tighter?" Not to mention the critical overused and filler words that pop up once you've had a chance to step away from the WIP. I've been told I've overused the word "and" in this particular story. I'm hoping the time apart will make those things more obvious to me when I go back at it. Every work seems to have it's own unique repetitions. Another word I felt I'd fixated on was "recriminations," even though it only appeared three times in the original draft. It is, however, a "highly visible" word in my mind, so I have gone back to address that one.

THE SELKIE - Epitaph 5, is slated for a June/July release. I should have the cover art in the next week or two, and I'm planning to share it over at Booklover's Bench next month. I'll keep you posted!