A New Milestone: Editing Begins

It is time

Every novel reaches a point where the long, solitary graft shifts into something more exposed, more collaborative, and, if I’m honest, a little frightening. I’ve reached that point. I’ve found an editor for Water’s Edge, and we begin working together at the end of April. After two years of shaping this story, revising it, tearing it apart, rebuilding it, and living with these characters in all their flawed humanity, it is finally time to place the manuscript in expert hands.

It feels like the beginning of the end of the journey. If all goes well, the novel should be polished and ready for the publishing world toward the end of the year.

Now comes the part I didn’t expect to be quite so difficult: finding the discipline to stop tinkering with the manuscript. The story is written. The characters are who they are. It is time to let the editor do their part. For someone who has lived inside this world for so long, stepping back may be the hardest task yet.

But it is also the most necessary. The work is no longer mine alone. It is no longer just a Scrivener file on my laptop or a private landscape in my head. It is moving into its next stage, where it will be challenged, strengthened, and prepared for readers. Its fate now rests with the publishing gods. May they be kind.

More updates soon as the process unfolds.