I know. It’s the festive season and everybody’s posting festive stuff. And so will I, very soon. In the meantime, however, life goes on and work needs to be done.
I recently finished editing my second book, Sophie’s Run, using fabulous input from my editor over at Sapphire Star Publishing. This was a fast-track, polish-it-up edit such as I haven’t done in a long time. And do you know what? It was totally exhilarating. I am so happy with the result, I haven’t stopped smiling since. (Better still, Katie and Amy at Sapphire approve too ~ happy dance).
But here’s the really juicy bit. The edits landed in my inbox just before I was due to leave for the RNA Winter Party. Well, what’s an author to do when she’s got a long train ride ahead of her, all the way to London and then back again? Plus some unexpected ‘downtime’ in a quiet hotel room with no distractions? You got it. A spot of on-the-road editing. In fact, I marked up seventy percent of the manuscript during the two-day trip.
And the moral?
Actually, there are two. One, there’s no such thing as a wasted train journey. And two, my brain definitely kicks into high gear on the road.
When the hotel grows quiet, the author gets editing!
Scratch, scratch, replace, alter… in several colours for several rounds of thoughts. And the whole thing looked amazing once it was ‘clean’ back in Word.
Have manuscript, will edit… even on trains, in planes and automobiles!
Do you enjoy editing (or writing) in unusual environments?
Oh. And here’s the thing. Sophie’s Run is currently undergoing proofing and I’m awaiting the fair copy for author approval. Because yes, this baby is coming your way on 7 February 2013 ~ watch this space!
Nicky Wells: Love & Thrills 
Once a month a few of us from our local writers’ group like together for a “writing date.” We take our laptops or even just pen and paper and meet for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon at the food court in the mall. Sometimes, there’s more gabbing than writing done, but usually the results are quite productive. It really forces you to concentrate and not become distracted by what’s happening around you.
That sounds amazing! Wish I could be fly on the wall… Thanks for visiting and commenting, Mel!
The experience you’ve just told us about the recent editing of your manuscript reminds of a song I sang in school as a child, viz:
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go,
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go!
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go,
We’ll catch a fox and put him in a box,
And then we’ll let him go!
However when it comes to your recent editing experience I’d have you sing it as:
A’editing I will go, A’editing I will go,
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, A’editing I will go!
A’editing I will go, A’editing I will go,
I’ll mark it in red as how it should be read,
And then I’ll let it go!
Editing and tweaking of a manuscript can become a real daunting experience especially since as an author we all live in fear we’ve missed something despite our best efforts for perfection. There’s always something we still should have done, which is something I found out after I started to tweak my edited manuscript; which is what I wrote about in my blog. I’ll be emailing you links to the specific entries in my blog in which I dealt about what I did to reach my idea of perfection for my debut YA novel shortly.
LOL! Thank you. 🙂
Nicky
I’ve just check my blog and there’s only one entry in which I detailed the words I looked for in the tweaking of my manuscript. I’d like to invite you [and any other authors who are reading this] to take a look at it. I hope it turns out to be useful in the tweaking of your manuscript(s).
http://mypennameonly.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/time-for-another-status-report/
I’ll stop by shortly! X
Well done, you! You’re like a whirlwind, Nicky!
Ron and I were going to have a meeting on the 6 hour ferry journey back from France in August. But he went off to the cabin to have a snooze and didn’t come back until it was too late, so the opportunity was lost! 😉 In future I’ll take a notebook and pen and spend the time writing instead. 😉
Joanna
I always have a notepad and pad close at hand. In fact, I keep them on the night table next to my bed if I should ever wake up in the middle of the night with idea to write something. I lost many an idea before I started to do this.
I have paper and pencil on the night table and usually when I go out, but didn’t have them to hand on the ferry. I’ll know for my next trip!!
I’ve got quite good at writing reasonably legibly in the dark lol – at least so that the words don’t run over each other 😉
Good plan! Mind you, I did a Ron today, having had such a bad night’s sleep, I conked out on the sofa and excepting this blog post, I’ve achieved nothing from my to do list. Ho hum. Off to see Peter Pan shortly! Thanks for visiting 🙂
Yay for panto! Or movie? Sounds like a good balance to me after all your busyness. Have fun xx
And like you, I have a pen and paper by my beside and am reasonably good at writing in the dark. Creative minds, huh? XX It’s Peter Pan the Panto!!! The kids’ FIRST!!! Can’t wait… XXX
If I didn’t edit while I was out and about, I’d wonder how I would get things done. 😉 Great post! I’ll be posting short vids + photos of my editing journey with my upcoming book. Yours looks just like mine. LOL . Nice meeting you on the #TWITTER!
Hi Kandie! *waves* awesome that you could visit! And glad I’m not alone in the fiercely-grabbing-very-opportunity-brigade. Thank you so much for dropping by and I’ll pay a return visit to your blog as soon as I can. Am taking the kids out to a Christmas play shortly… It’s all fun and games in this season! 🙂 xx
This time of year, when it’s cold, I like to edit in my bed with a warm blanket and thick socks. Next to the warm fire is nice too, but usually there’s too much noise with the TV and kids. Your road trip sounds like it was a blast and with all that fun work to do too… 🙂
Oooh, now, warm blanket, thick socks and fire… that sounds inspiring too. I bet I’ll be doing some of that over the holidays! Thank for visiting, Dana!! 🙂 x
I think I need to go on a long train ride for uninterrupted time to do my work.
I highly recommend it!!! Thanks for visiting and commenting, Anneli. 🙂
I’ve heard a few people say you should try editing away from your desk or where you actually wrote the book. How have you found it Nicky?
Xx
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