The process of crafting a story is straightforward enough, starting with one word, building that into sentences and paragraphs until a character reveals the plot to the author. Then the author refines the characters, letting them tell their story.

This is the way I write. Start there. My job is to show you what the characters want to tell you. Not tell their story. I’ll leave that to them.

Then, at some point, the characters stop talking. The story’s written. And that’s when the hardest part starts. Editing. It’s the most important and difficult part of the writing process. As the author it is your responsibility to create the story that your characters want to tell.

Stripping out all the unnecessary or extraneous details, the author is left with one more pass. The line edit.

Detail work. Yuck. I’m not great at that, which is why it takes me forever to get through it. Right now that means working through Restitution, a thriller about fraud at a recovery center, and its manuscript runs close to 90,000 words. Line editing something that size is no small task.

It’s close to running an ultramarathon. Runners don’t cover 50 miles in one leap. They cover it one stride, one aid station, one mile marker at a time, trusting that the miles add up even when the finish line isn’t in sight yet. Line editing works the same way — one sentence, one paragraph, one chapter at a time, trusting the whole book gets there eventually.

Or eating an elephant. So the adage goes, you eat an elephant one bite at a time — which sounds absurd until you’re staring down a manuscript and realize that’s exactly the scale of the thing in front of you.

I suppose that means it’s going to take me a bit longer to go through it, but it won’t get done unless I do it. My characters certainly won’t do it for me.

Show up. Pay attention. Get out of the way. That was true when I started this book. It’s still true now, one line at a time.

Publication details? As soon as I have them.