Greetings from the cave! 

I feel I should explain where I've been and what I've been up to, since I've been pretty quiet for so long. The long story short is - I've been spending a lot of time with my family and friends. If you want a more detailed account of those adventures, subscribe to my newsletter in the sidebar! 

And now, the blogging muse has struck again. And so, I've been going through my blogging archives to see if I could finish a post or two that have been lying around. 

Because, ya know, 13 draft posts are a little *much*. 

Many of them still need some research and some time to stew (like *hem* that post about dragons that I hinted at forever ago - still too controversial for me to touch!!) 

But I have two "mini" posts that are a little too short for my liking but were similar enough topics that I decided to throw them together. Call it a double-feature, if you will. 

The first feature is a post from late 2020 (!). Ouch, I did not realize this editing game was two years old. This is bad. Very bad. I need to get my act together. 

=========== 

Nailing the Age Range of Epics of Verden 

(originally written December 2020)

When reviewing my book, a common question my editor would ask was "what the ideal age of my reader was". I always answered 18-25, simply because of the content. Apparently, according to her, Young Adult is now considered 12-17, which is the equivalent of teen literature to the rest of us. 

My voice tended to ride the middle of two age ranges. Too clean for Adult fiction and yet too thematic for Young Adult. 

While The White Rose is written in an old-fashioned, light-hearted style, some pretty adult content happens. One of the main characters loses her purity. There is a band of ethnic nomads that engage in witchcraft and seduction. This isn't kids' stuff. And much of it....is integral to the story.  

What is a poor Christian author to do? 

Ironically, the answer would be found in another fiction book. 

I picked up the novel Chivalrous not too long ago, from the teen section of an outlet store. However, as I went through the book, it also had some adult content. There were affairs, desires, and even.....I shudder to even write this....an abortion. And this is supposed to be a teen book?????

Out of curiosity, I flipped over the book to see the review blurb on it (you know, the one below the actual blurb?)...and found that this book was marketed as a YA/Adult crossover. 

Interesting. I think I have found my marketing niche.....

=========

Ironically, had I been thinking ahead, I could have used this more effectively as an Instagram caption. Oh well. 

The next segment was written much more recently. However, I don't believe that my state of mind was very good when I wrote this one, as you will probably gather from the proceeding text. You have been warned. 

===========

How Line Editing and Developmental Editing at the Same Time Strangely Works

(originally written January 2022)

Greetings from the Cave! 

We're now a week into the new year and all of a sudden, my editing inspiration has come back. Don't know if it was the Epiphany blessing earlier this week or the fact that I'm starting the turn the corner from the horrible PMS I've been experiencing for the past two weeks. Either way, I'm not complaining! 

Now, this title is a little weird, even for me. I mean, you've heard me moan and groan about this whole system that my editor has tortured me with. And I'm sure that any editor friends that happen to stumble across this are giving me the stinkeye right now (for the heretical nonsense I'm sure to spew and the ridiculous grammar).  

Tell you what, you read the post and then you can judge all you want. No holds barred. (haha, I originally wrote that as "no bars held", and there were a few moments where for the life of me I couldn't figure out why that didn't look right).

1. It allows organic growth of the manuscript. 

While I am a big believer in making lists of editorial markings and scene ideas, sometimes the best improvements are those spontaneous moments that just solve everything. 

For example, today I was editing a scene in Chapter 13 when I suddenly got a brilliant idea that promised to fix a persistent plot hole that I've been dealing with. You see, sometime in the middle of Draft 2, this bevy of foreign girls just randomly showed up and plopped themselves in my story. Oh sure, they gave me their first names and their country of origin, a few anecdotes here and there, but...no explanation as to how this Tournament Court thing came into being or why they were there, or what. They threw my poor beta readers for a loop, especially when one of them paired themselves with one of my Suitors...yeah, that was kinda a surprise for me too.  

Until today that is, when it was revealed that my antagonist may have been doing some shenanigans. Which is about time, to be honest, that girl was starting to worry me she was so quiet. 

Now, would I have thought of the same idea doing the traditional editing route? Maybe. Pantsing is so unpredictable, that it's hard to know when it's going to strike. 

2. Learning how to prioritize things. 

One of the biggest objections that I had to line editing before development was the whole cut-and-paste business that tends to happen. After all, if I'm going to just cut the scene entirely, why would I spend all that time line-editing it? 

The answer is "Cut the scene, stupid, and have done with it." And don't ask me how long it took me to figure that out, for it's rather embarrassing (read: a long longer than it should have). Although to be fair, most major cutting and pasting like that is firmly in the developmental side of things, so it was really hard to reconcile the two. 

Editorial lists are really really helpful when dealing with this. They help keep track of what got cut and what's getting moved. 

========

Aaaaand the post ends there. Because there really was no other reason why this system works and really, even those two points are shady. I go back to my original position - line editing and developmental editing should be done at SEPARATE stages. And for pity sakes, find an editor that does that. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Have you thought of writing a crossover or marketing your book as one? Do you prefer to edit all at once or do it in chunks? Let me know in the comments below! 

Scribbingly yours, 

Catherine