*Miss’s Doubtfire voice* Hellooooooooo! XD

It’s been quite a while since I last updated y’all on my progress (or, seems like for a while there, the complete lack of) on editing my next fiction release, The Fall (The Ballad of Emery Brooks, #2). Honestly, I just looked back through my past posts, and I posted Episode 3 in June 2021… so that was a whopping nine months ago… *hides in shame*

BUT, now that crunch time is coming, I’m getting serious about this thing. Let me stop procrastinating with this intro and actually tell you about it. 😉

Editing Round 3 or 4?: December 2021

Surprise! I actually did get around to doing an editing read-through in December 2021 (while I was also editing Writing by Faith… which was a poor choice on my part, but anyway), but it wasn’t a very thorough read-through, if you catch my drift. I was actually piggybacking on the last edit read-through I did previously (which was, according to Goodreads, in May 2021) where I didn’t quite fix everything I had taken notes on to fix. During the December read/edit phase, I just read back over that same draft, made additional notes, and edited half of the manuscript before I realized… hey, dummy. You need to worry about Writing by Faith more right now, because you told your editor you would get it to her by the end of December, and you know how chaotic Christmastime is. So, again, I abandoned the editing round for The Fall at half-completion and got serious on Writing by Faith, which released in February 2022.

Editing Round 4 or 5: March 2022

After Writing by Faith released, I jumped back into editing the last half of The Fall on March 5th, and completed that round on March 14th. As of the time I’m writing this post on March 23rd, I’m 67% into another read-through edit, where I’m focusing more on the story beats and pacing this time rather than typos.

As I mentioned in a past Editing Diaries installment, I initially had some issues with Act 1 being too long, and Act 2 being way too short. Though I’ve fixed the majority of those problems, I feel like the issue that comes up in Emery’s life between Act 1 and Act 2 is bigger and messier than the one that happens around 75% into the book, during the “All is Lost” moment. I’m currently using a Franken-Beat Sheet based off of Abbie Emmon’s story structure worksheet, and Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! method, trying to get a good grip on what needs to happen. As of right now, I plan to alter the issue from Act 1 so that it’s impact is of a lesser magnitude, and then pack the punch it originally held into the event at the “All is Lost” moment. Hopefully by the time I finish reading this round, I’ll find that plan is still attainable. My plan is to finish this read-through by the end of this week, and to implement those big scene edits on Saturday.

Prayers are appreciated! ❤

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

If you’re a writer, tell me about your current WIP! What struggles are you currently facing with your manuscript?

If you’re a reader, and are anxious about the release of The Fall, don’t fret! If all goes well with this edit, and I like how it turns out upon the next read-through, I’m fully anticipating that its release day will be on October 4th, 2022, Lord willing.

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀