The edits are back. Now what?

O.K. So, I’ve got the edits back from my editor – and I’m glad to see that I have a lot of work to do. I’m so glad to have had a professional review and critique my work. I was told writing is only the first step, and that rewriting will go on for what seems like an eternity.

As I’ve said many times before, I’m not a writer; but I’ve written a manuscript. And, gosh darn in, I will publish this piece of work. It’s just not yet at that quality I want it to be. Not ready to be released to the world. Not yet. I know this.

So now that I have my manuscript back – with line by line editing and a slew of suggestions, opinions and advice – I have been trying to sort out a strategy to attack the work again. And make the time to do it. I’ve had the edits back for almost a month now, but haven’t touched the work since.

Why? Well, do I really want to go back into the story/world I’ve created? I mean, I feel like I don’t want to go back there. I’m done with it. I’ve moved on. It’s over. But, I know I can’t turn my back on all the hard work I’ve put into it. The reason why I hired the editor was to improve on the piece. To take a professional look and stab the manuscript with valuable critique. To push me to look at the manuscript again and polish it to an improved state.

But how do I attack those pages again? Where do I begin? A strategy must be set in place. And I think I figured out what I’m going to do: Review the summary of all suggestions and make a list of points that I agree with and should put into the story. What I will do after I have that list, I don’t know yet. And, while I’ve been away from the work for so long, I’ve had time to drum up more ideas on how I want to improve it. And part of me wants to rewrite the whole thing. But, I won’t allow myself to jump into that until I allow myself to focus on the editing list. Patience.

To summarize, my next step is to take the editors notes and make a long list of what I want to do to improve my manuscript. I’ll update you all once I’m done and ready for the next step – whatever that may be.