Determination...

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been buried deep in the edit cave working on edits for one book. Beginning today, I'll be working on the edits for the next book in the queue. That's how things work sometimes in the author's world. Sort of a feast or famine scenario.

Whilst in the midst of editing, I read a blog written by a brand new author about editing. She was overwhelmed because someone told her she should only have minimal edits--therefore, she must be a lousy writer.

I will be very frank about my experience over the last two weeks. I was a bit put out when I first received the edits for this book. On the face of it, it didn't look like there was much to do, but every single question required a fairly extensive revision--if I intended to do the best job I could.

That, of course, is the key. How determined was I?

I suspect I could have done less. I could have sloughed off and done the minimum. But after getting my irritation out of my system, I sat down and worked. And worked. And worked. At times, it seemed like these would be the never-ending edits. More???

When I believed I had done everything I could, I saved the entire book to another file, accepted all the changes...and printed it out. And then I began from the first word and read it, marking every typo and error and question with my handy-dandy red pen. You would be surprised at the number of errors I found. It took nearly three days to read it.

Then it was back to the computer for more corrections. I finally finished it and sent it off to my editor on Saturday night. And when I did, I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

There will no doubt be more edits for this book. And of course, there will be final line edits for it. But at this point, I know with great certainty that I did the best I could.

anny