Editing With Samantha Bacchus

In Week 4 of my series on editing, I am very pleased to welcome author, Samantha Bacchus, to my blog. Samantha writes psychological suspense and crime novels. Last year she was longlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award 2015 and acquired an agent for her writing. It's again down to the power of social media that I 'met' Samantha. We started following each other on Twitter and on our writer/author pages on Facebook. Like my other guests, Samantha is always very supportive and celebrates any successes, commiserates if things do not go well and can be relied upon to retweet and like any news or messages.   

Welcome to the blog, Samantha. Before I say 'Over to you', I just want to congratulate you on securing an agent for your novel.That's brilliant news! 
Thank you and thanks for inviting me to talk about my editing process, Jan!

I began my writing journey with short stories, and I suppose it was a case of trial and error because I didn’t get others to read my attempts. Keeping to a tight word count when aiming for publication in the Womags meant ensuring all words were needed – that each paragraph drove the story on. And the magazines that published my three stories did the editing. For my own collections of short stories, I read and re-read and used spell/grammar check – but I was writing stories that I loved and probably writing for myself really, so editing was no ‘biggy’ if you know what I mean!

It wasn’t until I began to write a novel that editing became a large part of my process. Just to get this out in the open – I’m afraid I’m one of “those writers” who edit as they go.

Noooo! I hear you say. Yup. Despite reading countless advice to ‘just write’, ‘let the story flow’, ‘don’t stop to fuss over details’ etc, etc – I do just that. I’m not saying I pour over every sentence, but after I’ve written, say, a page – I’ll read back over it and adjust things I don’t like. It WILL change again on the next ‘proper’ edit, but I can’t move on if it doesn’t feel or read right. I just can’t. It’ll bug me, haunt me, stab at my unconscious until I change it.

I’ve written two novels now. The first was written in 2014 before I had an agent. This is the novel that really I was writing for myself. Although I’d been writing in view of gaining an agent and a publishing deal, ultimately at that point I’d no one to please but myself. And that was great. Liberating.

When the final words The End were typed, I put the manuscript away (figuratively speaking as I didn’t print it out). I didn’t leave it long though before reading from start to finish in order to pick out major points, for example errors in timeline, inconsistencies in character traits, jarring narrative and rubbish dialogue. I found that reading it aloud helped. Then I went back over it, chapter by chapter and ensured the grammar was correct (as far as I knew) and that I’d given the readers enough detail of characters and place. At this point I added things in to make them more three dimensional. I did all of this on-screen – I never printed any of it. Then I thought I was done.

So I handed it over to some trusty readers. And, erm … clearly I wasn’t ‘done’! After several people from my writing group gave valuable feedback and critique (which, you know – can be hard to take) I set about tweaking. And then I sent it out to a handful of agents. The rejections soon followed. Luckily I found a freelance editor on Twitter: Kate Foster – and she gave it a thorough edit. This was the first time I’d used track changes properly! It was weird having a professional look at my manuscript but I felt I learned a lot from working with her, like ridding the script of that’s and needless waffle and ensuring my close-third person point of view was consistent. I sent the final edited version out to agents and was lucky enough to have several full manuscript requests.

While it was out, I began the second novel. I approached the editing much same way as my first. Difference being with this novel is that when I was part way through it, I secured an agent. The editing process was then different than I’d been used to. Once she’d read it and given me notes on what required changing – I set about going through from start to finish. This was the first time I’d changed big chunks of my manuscript and so I wrote out every change that I needed to make (it was a fairly long list) and crossed off as I went. This edit included changes to the characters who I’d chosen to tell my story – cutting a whole point of view, then having to fill in the gaps as the word count obviously fell. It was a totally different experience than editing on my own, and editing with Kate. It also took a few edits. Once I’d made the ‘big’ changes it went back to my agent. She went through line by line and again used track changes. Thankfully the next time it came back to me the changes were minor!

I can’t say I enjoy editing. Particularly having to do it again and again! BUT – it does make the manuscript stronger, so it’s all good in the end. Although, it’s not over – next I will be working with the editor of a publishing house – and editing it further … 

You can read about my author journey on my blog samanthabacchus.blogspot.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @sam_bacchus

My Facebook page is: Samantha Bacchus Author

Samantha, thank you so much for sharing your experiences of editing, especially how they changed once you secured your agent and worked with an editor. Good luck now as you progress to working with the editor of a publishing house and I look forward to being able to read your published novel. Exciting times! :-)

Just in time for Valentine's Day next weekend, why not download Samantha's collection of love stories, Love Potion?

The anthology is a collection of six short stories with a mixture of humour, intrigue, renewed love, second chances, first love and destined romance. They are described as quick easy reads, ideal for a coffee break.

Thank you for reading. Has your editing changed once you started working with an editor? Samantha and I would love to hear your experiences. Thank you. :-)

You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer page.