Editpalooza 2016: Orchard Pointe is Almost There!

Over the past month and a half, Jolene and I have been doing edits and rewrites on Orchard Pointe, and I'm happy to say we're almost there! 

This past week marked a major milestone, as we finished a significant rewrite of a supporting character's storyline that affected the last third of the book. 

I've mentioned before that edits and rewrites remind me of Jenga, where pulling one piece out can bring the entire structure crashing down. I think about that concept quite a bit when reading other people's work, watching movies, or even playing video games. In every creative project, there are things that are less than perfect, And through the revision and polishing process, choices always have to be made.

I always ask myself:

Will this change make the story better?

If I change this, what else does it affect? Does it break anything?

How much of the story will need to be rewritten to accommodate this change? 

How does this affect the book's deadline? Is it worth delaying the book for?

There are plenty of other questions as well, but those are some of the biggies. I'm sure all creators have similar lists of questions.

Anyway, the reason I blathered on about that is to provide context for the rewrite Jolene and I just completed. A couple weeks ago, we were discussing the arc of a supporting character. And it became clear through our discussion that the character in question kind of faded in the last third of the book. Jolene had some great ideas about ways we could make it better, and we talked about the aforementioned questions of what it would take to do that. In the end, we decided that not only would the story be better for the changes, but the changes were worth it, and if we stayed on track, they could be made in our current revision schedule.

So, we did it. And looking back now, it was absolutely the right choice. The story is stronger for it, and the book feels more complete. We have also left the character in a place that we can explore in future stories, which is always a good thing.

With that rewrite out of the way, we are now in the final stages of edits for Orchard Pointe. We'll be talking a lot more about it as we get closer to release, and keep your eyes peeled for a cover reveal soon!