Confessions from the Editing Cave with Paula Rose

Welcome to another installment of Confessions from the Editing Cave. This week I have lovely romantic suspense author, Paula Rose joining us!

1. Tell us a bit about your background working with editor(s). Did you hire a freelance editor? Work with an editor at a publishing house? Work with an agent in the capacity of an editor? All of the above or some other combination?  

I had the privilege of working with Sarah Joy Freese at Anaiah Press.

2. What was your overall relationship with your editor? Good? Bad? Indifferent?  

Excellent! Sarah Joy Freese taught me so much about the editing and writing process inside the editing cave.  It was wonderful to uncover the good and not so great parts of my writing or my crafting errors.  To update some of my outdated ways and to learn the new and exciting crafting details, I was able to mold a story into a work that I fell in love with all over again.

3. What was the best edit you’ve ever received from your editor? 

My villain’s excellent creepy factors and excellent creepy chapters.  

4. What was the worst edit you’ve ever received from your editor? 

I didn’t really know enough about my hero, and she was right.  When I started the story, I had a personality in mind, but this hero didn’t play that way.  He really did become someone I didn’t know.  With this “worse” edit, the best thing happened.  I met the hero that appeared on my page not the one that appeared in my mind.  This hero had a whole life on these pages that I didn’t consider because I was focused on forcing him into the mold that I created.  Accepting this man, his personality, quirks, flaws and bruised heart opened up his story as I put his true self into my story line.  

5. What was your first, initial, gut-reaction to your edits?  

I was happy to be immersed, and I knew it would help the story.  However, the overwhelming feeling of I can’t do this entered my core.  It was my editor’s initial advice on her notes that kept that fear at bay.  Sarah Joy Freese gave this advice: “Don’t try to fix everything at once.  Go through each issue and focus on that issue.”   I did.  Just to see each one of those edits get done stoked the kindling of the I can do this feeling.

6. Confession time! Share anything else you’d like to confess.  

These edits happened during a tragic season in life, but with God’s help, using these edits, I was able to keep my balance.  Sometimes, things do come up when you don’t think they should and at a time when you don’t think you can deal, but you’ll look back and thank God that they arrived in the nick of time.  

ALL ABOUT PAULA:

Author Paula Rose brings an “average” family into extraordinary situations, brushes with life-size strokes of reality, adding just a touch of humor, and coats with suspense inside Christian fiction. Paula’s research gives readers a panoramic view from law enforcement and lends to character authenticity. She enjoys writing in the romantic suspense, suspense, and mystery genres, but when she’s not writing, Paula Rose is playing amateur photographer.

Don't forget to visit Paula on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Pinterest!