Am I…Am I Smart?

So I’ve written a novel.
I typed the first official words of it on September 1, 2021, and I finished the first draft on May 27th, 2023. Then I took 3 months off from it, and it turns out that was PERFECT for me. It allowed me to breathe, to focus on other things both literary/creative and not, and generally let that excitement for the story to build back up.

And it did. By the time September 1st approached (my time-to-start-editing date), I was EAGER to read my early words and get reacquainted with the characters and story.

So I’ve begun. There are some weighty challenges ahead of me…I’ve never edited a novel before. But I’d never written one before either, so…

I’m making notes in the digital margins. I’m updating a spreadsheet of characters (turns out I have way too many). I am deciding where to make chapter and scene breaks, because as a Very Smart Person, I didn’t make any as I was writing. Not a one.

But my biggest excitement/success so far? Is that I still love the story and characters, that the poignant scenes I know are coming still pull emotion from me, and that I’m rediscovering things I’ve written that I really, really like.