There Are No Useful Editing Tips

I watched a bunch of videos on editing yesterday and came away with mostly nothing. Maybe I just haven't stumbled upon the helpful ones yet. I know I harp on this a lot, but it's true: without examples, "tips" are useless. I want to see those tips in action. I pretty much know what I need to do; the problem is, I don't know how to do it. Honestly, these people treat viewers as complete morons.

The common advice boils down to, "Find what's wrong with your manuscript, then go ahead and fix it." Okay, thanks. 

Some of the experts even veered off into how to write a novel. It's as if the editing topic was just too boring for them to focus on. Only one tip might be semi-helpful, and that involves writing a reverse outline, which means an outline after the fact. Make a list of each chapter and each scene within that chapter, so you can...apparently analyze the story issues or something. That might be all well and good, but it won't address my big problems with my manuscript ~ pacing, the opening, to name but two.

No, I'm not expecting YouTube videos to polish up my book for me. It'll come down to a lot of hard work on my part, but a road map would be wonderful. I could tear the story to bits, only to find that I created more problems than I solved. 

One editor was keen on having the first draft printed and bound into an actual book, so I could sit in a "quiet space" and read through it. Really? I don't doubt the advantages to doing that, but it's a completely unrealistic expectation. Bear in mind that this, according to her, is only Step One in the process. There are multiple additional steps, such as sending the manuscript out to beta readers, then editing again before hiring an editor, upon whose feedback I will need to edit again. If I could afford to hire an editor, I wouldn't be watching these videos in the first place! And just how many times will I need to edit? I'm not even going to make any money on this book!

I think my expectations regarding editing advice were just too high. I wasn't looking for little tasks to complete, but the "hows" of making fixes. So I'm back where I started. Only by hiring a developmental editor will I get any answers, and I can't afford to do that.

This is all just theoretical right now anyway. I'm still on a break from my manuscript, with no rush to dive back in. (Is that a bad sign?) Whereas many writers "can't wait to share my story with the world", I'm more ehh. I could take it or leave it. It's just a story, one of millions. I was so invested in it while I was writing; now I'm more or less blase.

I do think I'll ultimately publish it, because why not? I did put a lot of work into the thing. And as much editing as I ultimately do, I'm never going to be satisfied with it, but that doesn't mean the story is bad. 

I'm fully aware of where I went wrong ~ I've essentially written two separate stories. I thought it was a great idea to take the original iteration of Second Chance and expand it into a novel, but now that original story is like a minor subplot, one that I spend many, many words on. The inciting incident is when the main character gets "discovered", but she needs to go through a whole vomit of words to even get to that point. But what can I do? Omit her time in Chance completely? That would mean losing one of the major supporting characters, and it would doom the book. 

I think I'm going to stop thinking about it for now.