J.M. Arlen

Once I had decided to self-Publish I knew that the next step would be an editor. I had already let beta readers go through the story a few times, and now I needed someone to really help tie it all together. An editor can really help find mistakes in consistency, pacing, plot lines, dialogue, sentence structure, punctuation. This part of the process is really the end all be all of changes. They see things you can’t see like for example I had a moment where two characters were speaking in front of a third character about secret information. I didn’t realize I had forgotten to write a moment where the third character leaves the room. Just a few missing words changes the entire context of the scene.

Another scene my editor wanted me to replace was the opening. The way the story begins is very important to the overall structure of the plot, and my editor felt I could weave some of these beginning moments back into the story through the use of flashbacks. But I’ve never been a big fan of flashbacks personally, so I decided to keep the story chronological instead of just dropping the narrative when it felt convenient to fit in these story moments. It also kind of distracts from the meaning of the first act of the plot, because it depends on these opening scenes being seen first to work correctly. 

There were many changes I did make, though, my editor really knew what she was doing. Very few of her suggestions got ignored. In the end, I feel like her contributions were massive. The story improved a lot after she was finished. And I will forever be thankful to Clara for her help.