In February, 2016, I handed in first round developmental edits for book three in the FIRE IN THE WOODS series.
I figured I didn’t have much time until I saw the manuscript again, so I picked up and older 52,000 word first draft I’d finished nearly two years before and gave it a read. It was pretty good, but I knew it needed “something”. I just wasn’t sure what. So, out to the beta readers it went.
Within a few reads, I’d learned that it was solid, but I needed a few things:
- A new beginning.
- A best friend character so my MC wasn’t always alone.
- I needed to severely slow down the pacing
With this information in hand, I attacked with reckless abandon. By the time I’d finished the 12th draft in June, 2016, I had added 46,000 words, nearly doubling the manuscript to 98,000 words of alien-filled goodness.
I just rounded up five more beta readers to look over this draft, and as I read through the manuscript from start to finish, I find myself grinning.
Yup, I’m pretty darn happy with what this story has become.
But, of course, I will wait for five more opinions, and edit the poop out of the story five more times. I hope that the beta readers love it as much as I do. Hopefully, I will be shopping this new novel to publishers in September.
Have you ever picked up an old , dusty story, cleaned it up, and found a little gem?
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Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | Chapters Indigo! | iBooks | IndiBound |
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Jennifer M Eaton 
This is true, ladies. My first published YA short story languished in the desk drawer for ten years. But I still believed in it, the premise of it. So I work shopped it around, tried to get rid of the poop and submitted it again. Bingo! Cricket Magazine liked it and published it within a few months. Jennifer, you are an amazing author. You have a goldmine of beta readers. All the luck with this new project.
Yep, my second novel, Too Many Princes, languished as a 20-page fragment for at least 10 years before I picked it up again. That’s why I never throw stuff away, even when I think it’s pretty lame.
Yup! You never know!