Editing Week One

   Okay, so for the last month I have been freaking out because of all the horror stories I've heard of conceptual editing. Some people who have had books published before or who knew someone who has, were telling me about how they forced them to cut characters or entire subplots and I was really starting to get nervous. I mean, this has been my baby for the last three, almost four years, so I was really wondering if I would be able to make it. Then, on Thursday I received the promised e-mail from my conceptual editor and ... miracle upon miracles, she loved it! She didn't want to change much of anything and the biggest thing she wanted me to work on was adding some conflict. Now at first I was a little taken a back by this, I mean after all there is a lot of conflict within the story, but then it hit me. Most of the major conflict takes place within the second half of the book and since they spit the book into two, the first half needs a little more, so I decided that I would go along with this. Needless to say, I am floating on air with relief at how glad I am that she did not want me to cut any character, because that was my biggest worry. My plot is character driven so it really would have changed a lot.
    So now I have two weeks to polish it and make changes and then send it back to her. She will then look over it once more, determine if there is anything more that I need to work on and send it to me once again. I will again have another look at it and then off to the next stage. I will most likely be blogging quite often from this point on and keeping you updated on what I am doing and where I am at within the story. There are 14 chapters within the first book and I have already edited the first two, which were probably the easiest out of the whole thing.
   As for what I am currently reading, that would be the last book within the Inheritance Cycle. I have to say I loved the first book, Eragon, but sort of got lost/bored with the other two. However, this one I am actually enjoying quite a lot. I'm a little less than halfway done now. If you have never read these books and you are into fantasy I would recommend them, however they are for a reader that enjoys having to think about their fantasy. So if you are looking for a mindless, non-thinking story, these are not the books for you.