Edwin Page's Blog: Writing Life - Posts Tagged "editing"

The redrafting of my second historical novel to be set in Cornwall in south-west England is going well. Called Song of the Sea, it is due for release as a paperback and Kindle edition on 2nd February 2015. However, I would say that if writing is the pleasure, then for me redrafting is the pain that follows.

Song of the Sea has now been printed out and sent to my editor after redrafting and then tweaking. There's a mixture of nervousness and excitement at the prospect of someone else reading and assessing the work. It's a bit like sending a child out into the world and hoping they will be well received by those they meet.

The editing of Song of the Sea is going well and I'm starting to get more excited about its release two months today. Once the edit is complete the final version of the paperback can be printed and then sent out to be reviewed in early January. It's being sent to around ten publications, which is the most any of my books has ever been sent to. That's a little daunting and nerve-wracking. Fingers crossed it's well-received.

Having a novel that has local interest helps when it comes to getting reviews as local papers and magazines are usually interested in receiving the work. In this case, there are a number of publications relating to Cornwall that are only too happy to review the book, a few of which were sent Where Seagulls Fly and gave it good reviews back in 2009.

Editing is the process of polishing a manuscript. It involves paring it down; removing words that are unnecessary. It also involves making minor tweaks to increase the flow of sentences or clarify a point, as well as hunting down the small mistakes, like an 'is' instead of an 'if' and an 's' missing from the end of a word.

It takes a lot of concentration to spy all such mistakes and is quite different from simply reading the work. I think many readers do not realise how much focus us needed for editing.

I read the comments of one reader who asked how hard could it be to find the small mistakes? Well, it's actually quite hard, especially as our own worst enemy is our brain. The brain automatically inserts missing words or changes ones already present so that a sentence makes sense, and so when you edit you have to consciously try and overcome this element of the mind in order to uncover the mistakes.

This is why the editing of Song of the Sea is taking so long. If I were simply reading it, I would have finished days ago, but I am less than halfway through editing it after over a week of working many hours a day.

The 1st draft of a manuscript is like a rough gemstone hewn from the mine of your conscious and subconscious mind. It needs to be shaped by the process of redrafting so that its facets gain definition and polished by editing in order that it shine. Through these processes it becomes bright and sparkles with its full potential.