YA Blog Tour: Night Sky by Jolene Perry

Today's guest post is from Jolene Perry, author of her latest release, Night Sky. I am participating in her blog tour. 

Who has trouble with getting from point A to point B, otherwise known as the editing process, once you have finished your masterpiece of a manuscript? I know I do. Jolene has been gracious enough to share her editing process for her book, Night Sky! Thank you for visiting with us today Jolene ..... now, take it away!! :) 

Jolene's editing process:

Hold on.

It's an odd ride.

When I FIRST finish a manuscript - I KNOW it's the best one EVER. 

Time is the only thing that can fix this.

Before I actually tell myself I'm finished - I think about these two main things:

1. I make sure that some thread ties everything in together - in Night Sky it was honesty, in Knee Deep it was loyalty.

2. Then I make sure that my character has had some amount of growth - if they'd react the same way in any given situation at the end of the book, as they would have in the beginning, there was no growth.

Editing for me goes like this - 

Step one

Read it aloud - usually my husband gets to listen, and he's great with the logic stuff - she already said that, I thought she left in the last scene...

Step two

Send it to one friend who is NOT a writer, just a reader.

Step three

Let it sit for a month, maybe more.

Read it again, with more objective eyes, and fix/change/tweak.

Step four

Send it to one of my writer friends.

Make corrections, if I don't have to make major changes, I send it to someone else right away. If I DO make major changes, I keep it to myself for another few weeks before looking over it again. THEN make corrections, and send it to someone else.

Then it goes to my agent.

If I'm having trouble - here's a few things I do:

I outline the whole book AFTER I've written it, and put in this info:

I write why the scene is important, the info given or list the connection that's made to the rest of the book in that scene - in other words - WHY THIS SCENE MUST BE HERE

I write what my character wants.

I write what's keeping them from getting it.

I do that through the whole book. It's a pain, but helps with pacing, with cutting non-essential info, and with making sure that I don't have too many scenes in a row that involve the same people or any repetitive information.

And THAT'S the simple version of my editing process. I do have a few books that I know will have to go through more readers than this, but this is my standard. Hope this helps! I love hearing about writing and editing processes, because it nearly always helps me with mine.

Thanks SO much for having me here today!

~ Jolene

Find out more about the author and her book, The Night Sky

Night Sky website.
Jolene Perry's Website.

Tribute Books website.

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook.