In Anne Lamott‘s words, your crappy first draft is done, pretty much what you’ve verbally vomited onto paper/screen/napkin, whatever. So what’s next? The next thing you do is pat yourself on the back. Well done! You’ve written an entire novel. WOOHOO! Now comes the hard part. Just kidding, but not really. I say that it’s […]
The new novel went out to its first test reader after weeks of self-editing. As most of you would-be writers already know, this is very arduous task that can go against every emotional bone in your body because you are, after all, editing yourself. It’s as if you were a plastic surgeon staring at yourself […]
Spent most of the weekend editing the new novel, doing some fat -trimming, some word-thinning, and some plot-tightening. Fun. I’m planning to get it out to the first group of test readers in the next week or so. This is my fourth editing iteration so I’m hoping that it’s starting to look a little more […]
Nothing is ever perfect, nor is it really ever going to be. That doesn’t mean however, that you can’t get close to perfection. In the case of manuscript perfection, the key is in editing, as in good “improve your manuscript” editing. Prior to agent submission, I did most of my own editing and also had […]