Star Horizon, Round2

I changed editors for book2. And I was gifted with a different kind of edit. As I believe I noted on prior Star Fall updates, I had a couple of systemic issues. The most critical of these was a lack of or sparse context cues. As a result, the dialogue felt flat to the editor. I wasn’t giving enough context for her to visualize the scene, how the characters talked (and felt).

She suggested (strongly!) that I reread Star Horizon, make updates, and republish it. From her perspective, she didn’t see how that wasn’t an issue in book1.

I was hoping given how much book1 had been put through the wringer that I would discover no more than minor tweaks.

Big Sigh.

But I have discovered that the issue is almost as bad as it was Book2. Indeed, I have been making so many tweaks that I will have to run book1 through the editor again. The plot isn’t changing. Nothing about the characters is fundamentally changing though there are some adjustments as I add in the context— the scenes are a bit more immersive, and the characters have “more to say” about how they are portrayed.

There is some minor scene and chapter rearrangement as the editor isn’t a fan of staying with the same chapter with a POV change.

I’m about 60% through.

I’m pushing hard to get this to the editor so that I can fine tune book2 while book1 is getting reviewed. The upside is that the editor had not read book1 and the process should enhance the scope of her comments.

There is a part of me that feels like I failed.

But if I had not published book1, I would not have gotten the book2 review from my new editor. The issue would have remained.

Alas, the failure was a needed part of my journey to take my writing up a notch.

The work continues.

Breath to Fire.