After being away from Jefferson and his story long enough I’ve come full circle. It took an editor friend of mine to offer up her services to get me back on board with actually doing a proper edit of my story. At first I won’t lie; It was terrifying. I almost wished she was a stranger, just in case things went south.

I’d have hated to cut her out of my life!

Luckily, things went well and she gave me some tips and pointers (things I already had begun to fix up and briefly edited before sending it onto her) as well as decent feedback. I breathed a sigh of relief and made the decision to print a hard copy of my story.

Oh god. The first, full edit I’ve ever done is coming.

Coffee is starting to sound delicious.

As I reread the portion I edited before sending it out, I cringe at the use of incorrect tenses and wordiness. Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful moments in there but I’ve got a ton of work ahead of me before this is remotely close to submission worthy. Also after skimming my story I did something I absolutely hate in other stories; Make something a big deal in the beginning and then later, toss it out the window. I think that’s going to need to change… or get cut.

When I print my hard copy tomorrow, its going to be two hundred and fifty pages of my heart and soul printed onto paper. Now it’s up to me to take all the blood, sweat and tears and temper it into something incredible.

Well… at this point I’ll accept drivel, and we will work towards incredible.

Hey, I never said this was going to happen over night!

Also this will be my first story that will land in some sort of printed form, so… hurray for that!

PS- Thanks to my wonderful editor friend (she knows who she is) for her unbiased opinion. It might just be what I need to push harder than before!