Welcome to the final post of six in a series, “I Have a Story Idea, Now What?” Come on in as we talk about performing surgery on your new baby.

Obligatory disclaimer: there is no one true way to write or outline or plot or edit. What I’ll be doing in these posts is talking about how I do things, and why, and what I’ve struggled with. Feel free to use anything that seems useful and ignore the rest.

So you’ve written your story. Now what? Surely the worst part is over, right?

Sadly, no. I used to think this way, that editing was the equivalent of proofreading your paper right before handing it in during class. I was very wrong. Editing is more like cooking. You have your pile of ingredients that hopefully go together, and now you have to make sure they’re prepped and put together properly. (If your pile of ingredients looks like a basket on Chopped, you are either a genre-twisting genius, or you might want to consider which of the three books you have jumbled together you actually want to write.