Edit 3... or 4... probably somewhere in between... complete

I've finished the third going into fourth (because the first couple of chapters needed a second opinion) overhaul of my original story - the first original story, not my Nano story. This edit by far has been the most difficult, because it's also the edit where I received my "wake-up call." I had someone read the story through, mark what didn't make sense, what was too long that could be cut, and so on. I also had a writing group take a look at the first couple of chapters.

It's amazing the things you don't see going on in your story. For example, I have a bad habit of both repeating myself and stretching out explanations unnecessarily. I kept explaining things twice. Not only that, I kept focusing more on the explanations rather than the characters. As a result, the changes were massive - cuts, additions, complete rewrites. But once I came to realize what was going on and what I needed to watch out for, it was much easier to spot what I had completely missed in the first two edits. Which is exhausting, let me tell you. There were times when it would take two days, sometimes even three, just to get one chapter edited. It actually wore me out, literally. I sometimes had to quit because editing made me tired. It also made me hungry :/ (writing and editing - Jenny Craig's got nothin' on them ;)).

So what have I learned from my recent round of edits?

( Read on, MacDuff )