God Strain, Revision, and Letting Go

It has been five years since God Strain first hit the Kindle store. Almost three years before that, I penned the makings of its first scene onto the cardboard back of a notebook. The book didn’t take long for me to write, relatively, but the editing process…

Oh. My. Goodness.

That took forever.

I kept going back to it. Over and over again.

In the beginning, I was thrashing a lot. Stumbling over typical beginner’s obstacles, juggling a plethora of characters, fine tuning dialog, trimming superfluous words, and still trying to make a complete story.

I’m an obsessive editor. I wouldn’t say I’m a perfectionist; I don’t believe perfection exists. But I’m like a dog with a bone. I have a high-level of editing anxiety in me, so I keep meddling with words I’ve already written. Words that I should be done with.

Time to cut the umbilical, already.

So I went back to God Strain one last time.

Don’t laugh at me.  

The story contained a serious issue I wanted to wrap up: head-hopping.

Head-hopping is something many new authors struggle with, and it’s characterized by a rapid, inexplicable shift in point of view from one character to another. For example, a scene witnessed from Shaytan’s POV will be interrupted by Gram’s thoughts. The narration bounces around like a ping pong ball.

Since I was juggling eight–eight!–narrators in God Strain, I had a tendency to commit this literary sin. 

For the most part, it has been fixed.

Anyone who has already purchased the book and wants a free download, I’m running a two day special on Kindle (Dec 7th and 8th). I have some paperback copies on hand, so message me privately if you want one.

God Strain shall now be set to rest. I have other writing I need to be agonizing over.

Thanks for sticking with me through all this.

Life is a journey!