I write a novel and then edit, and edit, and edit some more.

Posted by amberargyle at 10:50 AM Thursday, January 29, 2009
I wrote entire trilogy for The Priestess Prophecy in a year (that's like 400,000 words). I spent the next year editing only the first book.

I wrote The Last Witch in one month--I've been editing it for about a year.

I am getting faster. My first draft is tighter and better written, so it's not as much work to polish it. I believe I'll get faster with each novel (so far that's been true), but writing is the fun part. Editing is the work.

At the moment, I'm halfway through Last Witch. I'm hoping my first readers will have time to go through it before I send it to my agent.

Deadline is in about four or five weeks.

How about you? What's your ratio like between editing and writing?
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5 comments:

  1. Michelle D. Argyle said...:
    January 29, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    I spend more time writing. I do some editing as I go, but don't go back and change anything once I'm past the chapter.

    Unlike you, the writing is the hard part for me. Editing is fun and easier. Everything is already there to work with.

    It takes me a long time to write the novel. I've been working on Monarch for about 3 months and I'm still not finished. It's at 103k right now with one more chapter to go, but I'll cut some of it down in edits.

    Good question. :)

  1. Christopher Loke said...:
    January 29, 2009 at 3:41 PM

    Glamis:
    103k words and counting? That's too high? The average should be 90k for your first novel. Once you are famous, you can write a 200k word novel for all you want.

    I am on my 16th chapter of editing. I have 16 more chapters to edit. It takes me 2 days for one chapter on average. But my MS has been through a year of harsh edits already. This is the second and final one. I plan to have it sold by summer.

  1. amberargyle said...:
    January 29, 2009 at 6:42 PM

    LG: How about I write it and you edit?
    Chris: When I first wrote it, it was 125K. I edited it down to 95.

  1. Jessa Slade said...:
    January 29, 2009 at 11:02 PM

    I write and edit, edit and write, cut, write, edit, add, edit, edit and then edit. Uh, and then polish. And then edit. I have issues.

    Amber, I saw your post on JA Konrath's site and thought if you're on Facebook as he suggests :) I'm better about keeping track from there, and your Priestess book sounds very interesting. You can find me as Jessa Slade with the blue eyeball.

    Anyway, wishing us all luck with our edits. And writing. And edits...

  1. amberargyle said...:
    January 30, 2009 at 11:25 AM

    Jessa, I found you on facebook!

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