Why you should edit your book backwards

Also, ASSASSINS is out in paperback today!

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

The third Assassins Anonymous book, Three Hitmen and a Baby, is due to my editor June 6.

It was meant to be a romp, and ended up being a little darker and more emotional than I planned. I’m excited for her to read it, mostly because I want to know if it works. I hope it does; I’m too close to it now to tell. Maybe it sucks. I think everything I write sucks, until someone tells me otherwise.

Despite my imposter syndrome and general misgivings, I am in the middle of one of my favorite parts of the editorial process:

The backwards edit.

I’m not sure if someone suggested it to me, or if I came up with it myself. But, I started doing it after I realized my endings felt thin and rushed.

Which makes some sense… by the time you get to the end of a first draft, or even subsequent drafts, you just want to be done, right?

I hustled my way through moments that needed time to breathe. I skimped on the details. My codas left too much to the imagination.

Backing up real quick: I tend to do four or five editorial passes on a book, before it’s ready for someone else to see. They start macro and go micro. The first is just getting the big pieces in place, and getting the story to make sense. By the last one I’m laser-focused on the sentence level.

But usually on the third edit, I start with the last chapter, and work my way to the front of the book.

This serves a couple of purposes.

It helps me infuse fresh energy into the last few chapters. Ideally I took a little time to work on some other stuff, to get some distance and let things marinate. Looking at the ending out of sequence reveals the parts that are rushed and not working.

And it helps to see the book out of order. You can better isolate the chapters, considering them on their own, as opposed to one big mad dash toward the ending.

In the crime/mystery/thriller genres specifically, I think it’s helpful in terms of backstopping all those hints and clues, to make sure they’re paying off.

This is one of my favorite tools in my writing toolbox; that trusty wrench you’ve had for years that’s so damn reliable and familiar, you could use it to build a car from the ground up.

As with most things: this tool may not be the right fit for you. Nothing I say is an order.

But I’d encourage you to give it a try.

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Now for some news items!

Assassins Anonymous is out in paperback TODAY! So if you were waiting for this particular edition, now is your moment.

This Thursday (May 29) I’m helping Christa Faust release her latest—and last—Angel Dare novel, The Get Off, at P&T Knitwear in NYC. The party starts at 6:30 p.m. and you can RSVP here. The first two people who tell me their favorite pizza topping will get a galley of The Medusa Protocol, the second Assassins book.

On Sunday (June 1), I’ll be reading at Noir at the Bar at Shade in NYC. I’ll be joining Christa, Alex Segura, Josh Chaplinsky, KT Nguyen, Jordan Harper, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden, with Big Daddy Thug himself, Todd Robinson, as host. The party starts at 6 p.m., at 241 Sullivan Street. There will be more Medusa galleys, and some Assassins paperbacks, on the raffle table.

The release party for The Medusa Protocol is also at P&T Knitwear, on June 23. I’ll be joined by my good pal

Alex Segura

. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and you can RSVP here.

My brilliant partner Cyn Grace Sylvie (a.k.a. The Grey Strega, who you can find over at

TAROT CHURCH

) has a new piece up at

Open Secrets

: I’m A Professional Tarot Reader Who Thinks “Twin Flames” Need to Be Snuffed Out. You can read it here. It’s a great piece in a great magazine.

Finally, I’m not doing a ton of touring for The Medusa Protocol but I’ve got a few other events scheduled; I’ll do a separate newsletter about that soon. But that one listed above is the big show, and I’d love to see you there.

Ok that’s all for now bye!