A few weeks ago, I lost a month's worth of edits for Traitors & Tyrants. It was devastating and made all the more horrific by an impending deadline for my Writing Children's Books career diploma. In about 7 days, quickly edited the bare minimum needed so I could send it off. When I say the bare minimum, I mean half of Rachel's POV. That's correct. I lost nearly every edit I'd completed for Hector's POV.
After printing the somewhat edited manuscript so I could send it to my instructor, I found myself with a big decision. My critique partners had only read parts of the novel. No one except my instructor had read an entire draft. Should I do a round of edits for Hector's POV before sending it off (as originally planned)?
The decision was incredibly hard and I knew I had to act as soon as I'd convince myself to send it away. So why do it when I already knew edits were still needed?
I found myself questioning a pivotal aspect of the story and was worried I had lost perspective.
So now I sit here, waiting for my critique partners to read the novel and let me know what they think. I sent it and regretted it immediately afterward. However, now that I've spent two weeks away from the project, I believe that sending it away was the right thing to do.
What do I write next? I have a project lined up but after working on Traitors & Tyrants so intensely, I'm taking this time to wrap up some other none-writing projects instead of launching into another.