Thursday 30 October 2008

editor

I had a brilliant meeting with my editor, well worth waiting for. We talked for hours - about my book! I didn't agree with all of her suggestions, but most, as usual, were spot on. It came down to restraining my tendency to spin off from the main storyline to pursue different characters up alluring byways and cul-de-sacs. (Note I refrained from calling them dead ends . . . my self control is becoming alarming!)

Then it was back home and onto the keyboard to snip and reshape - I felt like a hairdresser.

The whole has now gone back to the editor who will subject it to microscopic examination for typos etc. It's frightening how easy it is to miss glaring blunders, as the MS inevitably alters through the writing process. So a character might finish lunch and then begin their morning's work, for example. I think my worst (which thankfully I spotted) was when I first sent the MS to my publisher, hoping to impress. Skimming quickly through it the night before, I noticed my detective reading through her notes on a meeting which took place 5 chapters later . . .

Changing names is another potential pitfall. Of course you can use the find and replace function, but you have to be careful to search for whole words only. In one of many now discarded extraneous subplots, I had a character named Ron. As I knew someone of that name, I decided to change it to Rob. The MS was peppered with words like wrobg, and strobg, crobe and drobe. All in a day's work!

Wednesday 15 October 2008


Hi there, blog buddies. Go to http://www.noexit.co.uk/ and click on the 3rd item on the left hand menu - Forthcoming Titles. Scroll down and check out the 3rd title... and click on the title itself. Ha! Only you (and I, and my publisher and editor, and my family) know that the author is still working on editing the MS (as we in the trade call the manuscript.) Yes, I'm beginning to dare to feel a tiny bit pleased with myself... !

Friday 3 October 2008

The oracle has spoken

My universe has shifted on its axis... not spinning smoothly yet. I've heard back from The Editor, she who has a hotline to The Publisher... so far the signs from the oracle seem positive, but I'm not skilled in reading the signs and won't relax until the MS has definitely been given the green light. In the meantime, my internal universe is beginning to dust itself down and dare to entertain the hope that this time... this time... no, I can't even think it, let alone write the words.

What a marathon producing a book is! Or am I inordinately impatient? (Yes to both, I fear.)

I can only compare the experience to being young and in love, waiting for the phone to ring...