Editing a manuscript

How many times can you stare at a sentence without wanting to pull your hair out?  Or worse, without feeling the need to kick the one thing that is holding this whole operation together – my trusting little laptop, the same laptop that’s seen me through quite a few cases of writer’s block and the same laptop I’ve carried through more than one international airport and train station over the years.

As you may have guessed, I’m right in the middle of the latest and hopefully final draft of my book.

Gone are the days of less restrictive writing, which resulted in earlier drafts.

The first, for example, was relatively easy in retrospect. Who cares how it’s written, as long as it’s all there, right?

Then there was the complete rewrite in a different ‘point of view’. Painful, but still with an end in sight.

And the next draft, which needed to be better than the last, but not at all perfect as I was always going to have at least one more go at it.

However, when you get to the pointy end of the cause of my frustration and joy, whatever you write needs to follow the rules, or at least the majority of them anyway.

The time has come to make it all count.

Is the high level plot exciting enough? Do the lower levels of structure flow and make sense?

Are my leading characters boring, shallow or just plain unlikable?

Does the ending leave the reader wanting to tell others?

I hope so!

And for now, my laptop is still dent free and my hair still intact.

I’ll touch base with you again in a week or so.

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