E is for Editing

When I started to write my first novel, I let my sister read the first chapter. Surprisingly, she loved it. She encouraged me to write more. I didn’t let her read it again until it was complete. By that time, I’d read dozens of books on writing and thought I knew what to do. Yeah, I’m shaking my head too. I wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible before giving it to her to read again. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Then I gave it back to her.

She didn’t make it through the first chapter. This was her response after starting to read it:

Sis: “What did you do?”

Me: “What?”

Sis: “It was so good the first time I read it! It almost made me cry, but this—I can’t read this!”

She said it like it was…