Learning as I go

I've been writing for three years. It took me one year to write Mirror Image mainly due to having so many re-writes before the story was right. I've been recently blessed with my sci-fi trilogy as well as a romance novel going to be published this year.

And now the editing process begins. I thought I've gone through Mirror Image with a fine toothed comb. Thankfully, I have a wonderful editor who caught a few mistakes I thought I had addressed.

The more I go through the editing process, I realize I have a lot to learn about the writing process. Change the Stars, my romance novel, is a great story. My publisher has expressed how much she enjoyed it , but I have a lot of clean up to do before it's ready to go.

I've heard from others who've gone through publishing before that I will begin to hate the editing process and my editor. That's actually further from the truth. Maybe my experience is unique, but I don't mind the constructive criticism. It's best I hear this now, while I can adjust and fix than reading it in a review from someone who may not buy my next book.

Going through both stories, I've learned I have several bad habits that come from being an inexperienced author. I haven't taken a writing class since I was in Creative Writing in high school. I may not be the most polished writer, but I keep being told I'm one hell of a storyteller. So the bad habits I can adjust and learn from.

My advice to any writer is to take any online class available. There are also hundreds of different blogs that can help you sharpen your skills. The past week, that's what I've been doing. I'm hoping by the time my wonderful editor and I go through Mirror Shattered, the next in my sci-fi series, there will be very little red marks in the margins.