I have been going back over the first draft of my Nova Crea story, and have decided that I am going to split it into two books. I will first focus on what will comprise book one as I feel that what will account for book two is a lot stronger.
That being said, I saved my draft out as an Epub file, and had google books read it to me. Now, it is true that the google voice does not a narrator make, but it was still a very interesting experience having the first part of the book read to me. I have a lot of editing that I want to do the the story overall now that I have have it all down, but that is the beauty of being a writer, I can edit it to do whatever I want. :)
Now that I am doing listening, I will begin the editing process. I started work on the beginning of the book, but stopped. I decided that I want to start at the end and work my way forward. This will help clarify all that I need to change/fix at the start of the book when I had the worst grasp of the story idea and the characters were not real to me as they are now.
So here is my plan. I am going to go through each chapters in reverse, and make make a list of the plot or character changes are needed. I have some scenes that I want to replace completely and a couple that I think should be added. I will not worry about grammar or too much about specific items unless I think they will not have any impacts rippling out.
Once that step is done, it will go back through the first half, and tighten up each chapter, focusing on the characters, their voices, and confirm that I am keeping them inline with their own arcs.
Then, its off to the races with looking at the words themselves.... checking for passive voice, tightening up lines, and fixing the God awful amount of typos.
In the past couple weeks I have been playing some games again, going though Hellblade, Senua's Sacrifice, (amazing, play it if you have not done so yet) as well others. I will put an end to that and focus in on the project. My goal is to have a finished set of novels by the end of the year, so I need to get cranking.
