Admitting Defeat

I have been adamant as I've been writing this novel. I will not start editing my manuscript until I have completed the first draft. Will NOT. Nope. Not going to happen. Oh, I'll take copious notes about the changes I need to make, but I will not sit down to make them until I've finished with the story. Stories change and mutate all on their own as you write them, so something I feel needs to be adjusted in chapter fifteen while still only on chapter twenty might need to change in a very different way by the time the story has ended.

"How foolish to start editing when you haven't even finished!" I scoffed.

Except... I need to.

You see, this is my second version of this novel. I spent a year writing the first version, with the copious notes being all I needed to do all the editing at the end. But that version had two points of view, and after completing it and sending out my query letters, I realized how to make it into a novel from a single point of view, which would make the story infinitely better.

Now, in this version, there are glimpses of the other point of view. I have a row of notecards taped up on the wall of my office outlining those glimpses. I found a way to double up the events to make them take up less time in this version. I thought it was good and wonderful.

Then it hit me that it is too much. That other point of view, and her story, are taking up too much room in this version. It's making it a more difficult read, a more garbled storyline. In other words, it's causing the book to be worse, and not good and wonderful as I had hoped.

I need to fix it. I've figured out how: instead of two events throughout a myriad of glimpses, I need to cut it down to three glimpses, one event each.

Which means I need to move away from the story that happened in that first version and make something new. I need to combine events to make newer ones, more refined and smoother.

Which is a great big edit.

"Oh, do it at the end." I thought to myself.

But no. Because stories change and mutate and become something else entirely as you write them. And this is a big part of what is already written that needs to change. Who knows the path the characters will take to reach the end after this edit has escaped onto the paper?

If I don't redo it now, I'll have far more work to do redoing not only this first part, but also everything that follows.

So, I admit defeat. I will begin editing the first part of my book before the end is completed.

And going forth, I will check my superiority at the door. Yes, I have successfully completed a novel before, and while that is a wonderful feat and something I'm deeply proud of, I still have a lot to learn.