This lil' tweak forever changed how I approach revisions

3 lessons learned from completing global edits a fifth time

I turned in my global revisions for Book 5 (coming your way in June 2025) this week, and as I was working on it, the weirdest thing happened…I realized…I…really like this book? Authorship is a forever vacillation between thinking your work is beautiful and being convinced it’s utter horseshit, so you’ve gotta take the moony-eyed moments whenever they hit.

I challenged myself with this book—both with the structure (juggling multiple narrators and timelines, including one in reverse chronological order) and the mystery, a many-layered puzzle box with details clicking together in surprising (even to me! Thanks, subconscious!) ways. On rereads I found clues and red herrings and telling details I didn’t even know I’d planted. For the moment, anyway, I think it’s a fun read, and I can’t wait for y’all to dive into it.

This makes revision look much more glamorous than it actually was (more sweatshirts, fewer potted palms, and definitely no iced coffees in wine glasses). (Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich)

The revision process also brought to the surface three head-smacking revelations that’ll forever make editing easier for me. Maybe they’ll help you too! It’s cool, isn’t it, that being an author means forever stretching, growing, beta-testing and trying and failing and finding what works? Maddening, yes. But cool too.

Lesson 1: