Immersed in Editing
Well beyond my deadline and well over my anticipated word count, I finally finished the third book of my epic fantasy series, the World In-between . Halloween night, I penned the final words of Secrets of the Sages . Since then, I have been immersed in editing. “I am emptying the ocean with a thimble,” Silvia says in this book. Editing is all-consuming. Before a copy of my manuscript sees a different computer screen, I edit. On my desk, I keep paper and a pen ready for jotting down editing notes. How did I spell certain words in other books of the series? Should I capitalize shaman? What will be the spelling of Teresa’s family’s last name? Et cetera, et cetera. Manuscripts are funny things. They evolve with each reading. When I write, I will have what I call alpha reads. This is when I will read a few rawly written pages to a few close testers (my family). They give me feedback. I learn what works, what needs improvement and what sounded better in my head than