Diving In With First (Professional) Edits

I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the choppy, turquoise waves which promise a warm, wild, exhilarating ride. And, yeah, maybe a few scrapes, a bruise or two, but well worth the experience.

That's my analogy for where I'm at in the editing process for my first sold manuscript. The changes my editor wants are good, smart, sound. They will advance the pacing in the second half tremendously, push my characters, drive me as a writer to the next level. I'm looking forward to writing them, to taking the chaotic ride with my characters, to the smiles and tears that road will bring for all of us, to the depth of character the experience will uncover in each of our psyches (yes, I am lumping myself in with my characters here; no, I have no idea what that says about me mentally and have no desire to find out at the moment).

But...I'm scared. That flutter-in-the-belly what-if-I'm-not-good-enough scared. The one every writer gets at some point (or in many, many points) in their careers.

I've never edited for anyone but myself. Yes, I've taken lots of suggestions from other writers. Thousands. Turned, milled, conformed them into changes and edits. But, ultimately those alterations were always for whatever end result I had in my own mind.

This time, I'm making them with the hopes that based my editor's suggestions, I will be able to make the changes in my mind materialize on the page in a way that mirrors what she has in her mind.

Daunting? Yep. Sure is.

But I know I have what it takes to make these changes somewhere deep inside me. It will take some digging, some rooting around, and in some instances, painstaking unearthing, but I will bring it out, I will put it on the page and I will make this book all it can be.

I will.

Here I go... Any words of wisdom for me?