Ch-ch-changes

Admit it, you thought I was going to blog about Jim Butcher again, didn’t you? Although I am tempted…nah. I have progress to share. I finished my revisions on Wicked Kin two days ago. It’s been sent out to a few brave souls who will read it over and mark up any suggested changes, dropped words, etc.

Wicked was a little over 60,000 words when I submitted it the first time. It’s now 70,348. I think I scrapped 5,000 entirely. Then rewrote about 90% of the book. The first two of Nathaniel’s povs were the only material I kept and even those were tweaked.

After Wicked is contracted (yes, I am employing the power of positive thinking) and before it is released, I’ll share the thousand words or so that inspired me to write a novel about Nathaniel. I have loved him from word one. His world, his voice, everything about him is magical to me. I hope that I’m able to share him with you all someday soon.

So while I can’t say I enjoy revisions, they do strengthen a book. Further edits tighten it up and give it a nice shine that makes me all tingly inside. I mean, after months of plotting *shudders*, writing, revising, tweaking, deleting, you want the best for your book. Yes, that means sending it out into the world and having it return a little worse for wear and sporting those lovely red lines and comment bubbles. Although, I have to admit I do get a sick thrill editing them.

Sometimes your critique partners or betas can suggest changes that take you by surprise. Such a simple thing as a change in word choice can make such a powerful difference.

God willing, I will have my crits returned and edits applied in time to resubmit Wicked around the first of November. I’ll have my fingers crossed that the massive changes I made will make my editor happy. She had one request for my revisions, and I did that. The rest…well, it will be a surprise. Hopefully, the good kind.