Edits! [part six]

What do you do when you see the light at the end of the tunnel? Why, build a bit more tunnel, of course.

I was hoping and planning to celebrate finishing my edits today.

And, to a certain extent, I can do that. I can say, truthfully, “I have finished doing the things I planned to do with this story based on the notes from my editor!”

But.

But, but, but.

In the course of working on the last few chapters, I’ve identified a problem. It’s a problem that was kind of there in the original book, so it’s not as though making the changes I’ve made has caused it, but there is a possibility that taking out several chapters and a character may have amplified it.

Essentially, the problem is this: there is a section of my book, between the midpoint and the climax, that now feels a bit… flat. It’s an important section, because, without it, the world falls apart. And, if I just cut it, the pacing of the story wouldn’t work.

Now, I suppose I could send this new version to my editor anyway. I could say, “hey, I made the changes we talked about, and it’s caused this problem. Can I have some advice, please?”

And I might end up doing something like that anyway, but. Lots of “buts” in this post!

The thing is, I’m about seven weeks ahead of the deadline I agreed with my editor. It was a deadline I decided, and yet I still want to beat it. (Mainly because I know there will be further notes before we’re done, and I want to make sure I have time for these before my day job gets super busy, which will be in October and November.) Currently, I am beating that deadline — by a long way.

And that means I can afford, I think, to take an extra few weeks to figure out the issue I’m having with these chapters.