Editing and revising tries my patience. And sometimes bores me to distraction. When I feel like something is done, I feel like something is done. To me, that means: go create something fresh, dig deep for a new idea! MOVE ON TO WHATEVER COMES NEXT! But it’s not that simple when it comes to finishing a novel. Getting to the end of a first draft means that you’re about to turn around and start from the beginning again, this time blending out the lumps, blurring the harsh edges, and tightening the slack as you go.

I have big plans to outline our next works as co-authors (as well as to formulate a solid outline for my own book, which is flopping around in my head like a fish on dry land, gasping for breath), but all of the free time I can carve out for writing lately is consumed by forcing myself to rehash the novel that I’m ready to publish. I know it’s not ready to be published, but I’d love nothing more than to move on and meet new characters right now.

For the time being, I’ve had to leave the newsletters and self-publishing video links to languish in my inbox while we edit book #1, but as we do that, we’ve also been working with an awesome book cover designer who is bringing our vision for a cover to life. She’s amazing, and I can’t wait to post her work when it’s done! Each and every piece of this process is still exciting and new, but I’ve been really easily side-tracked of late, (“Oooh! Instagram!”) and have found lots of reasons to avoid editing (“But I really need to watch the last episode of Broadchurch on BBC America…”) It’s really time to pull it together and get this thing done. We’ve got goals and plans. And I’ve got editing to do!