Editpalooza 2016: Week Two Report

Jolene and I in action

Jolene and I wrapped up our second full week of Orchard Pointe edits with a two-hour Google Hangout yesterday. It was perfect timing, as there were some edits and revisions over the past week that were pretty substantial, and we're getting into the heart of the book now.

I am constantly amazed at how on the same page Jolene and I are when it comes to the worlds and characters we create. There is 100% creative trust between us, which is so important during the editing process, because that's where everything solidifies.

With these updates, I'm trying to give a little insight and specifics about how we work together, without spoiling the story for anyone. So, I apologize if this sounds a bit vague. But last week I mentioned that in this round of edits we're trying to get to the action quicker and trim some of the fat. Jolene is excellent at this, and she needs to be, because it's not my strong point. I tend to over-explain things, and I often fall down the rabbit hole of writing scenes where the characters are hanging out, but we're not really moving the story forward. If "hangout fiction" was a genre, I would be a bestseller for sure.

Just hangin' out.

Anyway, this week we cut out a scene from the beginning of the book where one of the supporting cast was introduced. It was unnecessary, since there was a perfectly good opportunity to introduce the same character a couple chapters later, when she showed up for a second time. Jolene surgically extracted the scene we didn't need, and I tweaked the next couple scenes featuring that character so that her second appearance became her first. It worked out well and we made our story leaner.

So, edits are going well, and the world of Orchard Pointe is starting to really come together. Oh! I almost forgot--here's a little taste of the in-depth editing conversations Jolene and I get into when we're working on our doc at the same time: