Major Editing

[Lavenderdays]

I thought I had finished my book but I've gone back and basically re-written a chapter. I have been working on this book for quite a while and thought I'd finished it, feeling a bit odd because I told myself that it was great as it was, will I ever get the book finished, I ask myself.
Anyone else think they were finished but then went back and made major amendments? I think I'm looking for some encouragement to keep on going. I had a clear plan in my head but this is going to mean yet more re-reading/editing etc. and puts the finished article even further away. I belong to a writing group so will re-submit the chapter and see what they think. I also need to submit the chapters somewhere else for critique. It feels like its going to take forever, to get this book finished (been working on it for nearly 3 years, I think, obviously very part-time but it would be great to see it finished).

I think you are going to need to do many drafts/revisions.

My friend who is published told me that he completed eight drafts, then two more with his agent.

Hi Lavender, I can only speak from experience and tell you that the book that I got my deal with is very different from my first draft. And the book which is being published later this year is different from that. Most of writing is editing and re-writing. The first draft is great to get the story down, and then you edit to polish and make it the best it can be. I think I ended up with about 10 drafts in all. I don’t know any writers who don’t write at least a couple of drafts. A new draft doesn’t necessarily take long to do. From writing my first draft to signing my contract took 2 years, and I write part time too.
Good luck with it

Thanks for your comments. I thought I had finished the actual content so was just perfecting what I had already written and didn't need to re-write parts of it. I have already edited what I have already written numerous times which potentially could have been a massive waste of time. It's now having the motivation to keep on going and not tell myself it is all too difficult.

Lots of effortful editing never makes it onto the page of the final version -- I think that's normal, OP. I once took out an entire narrator who narrated half of the story, hence 'lost' half of a novel at one fell swoop and then had to do a huge structural rewrite to restore it from the other narrator's POV (but now in first person rather than third).

A very successful novelist friend wrote a lengthy novel with three intertwined storylines -- her agent and editor hated two of them, but agreed the third had legs, so what was originally a subplot within a long novel turned into a short, tightly-written novel in its own right and a good 80000 words of the original version never saw the light of day at all.

Thanks everyone. Feeling a little calmer having started the amendments, just wish I had my sudden flash of inspiration sooner! There are probably other things that need changing but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.