Hallelujah It's Raining Edits!!!

Okay! The promised post!! I've been working really hard this week, so it has taken a while, but here is a very full, very long, very picturesque post on edits!!!

First off, for your viewing pleasure.:)



Welcome to my closet office! Yes, I work in a semi-organized mess!

So the first thing that happens with edits is that you get your ed letter (I am doing a whole post on that later this week since it's something a commenter wanted to know about. So specifics on the ed later will come soon. I promise!) I generally get mine via email. Even if Tara is sending me a physical ed letter, she always emails it to me first so that I can have it and have time for it to sink in, etc. So I generally read it a couple of times before I get started. Then, when I am ready to get started, I print it out. Then I go through and I look at every change and suggestion she has made, and I make notes about it. Agree, disagree, how I am going to change it, etc. I was so pleased with my letter this time. I kid you not, there was not a single thing in there that I didn't agree with. I LOVE it when it happens that way! But even if I agree, I still make a note of how I am going to fix it.

Then I move on to the marked up manuscript which contains both notes and line edits. (But mostly notes since a hefty chunk of the manuscript is going to change.) I do the same thing, I make notes beside every one of her notes with a brief description of how I am going to fix it.


Then, this year I did something a little different. I have a bunch of flags compliments of my lovely friend, Carrie Ryan, and I flagged every note that wasn't a line edit. That way, as I am doing my first pass through the manuscript I can follow along with Tara's notes and get more done the first time. So here is the marked up and flagged manuscript.



And I'd like to say that I have a special, organized system for what each color of flag means . . . but, um, no. They are just random.:)

Then I'm ready to get down to work! . . . Almost. I need my snacks:



And my drinks:




And, for inspiration, a bunch of second books from popular series!



Then . . . well, I'm afraid there's no magic of puffs of smoke in this section . . . I just work. I tend to go chapter by chapter, in chronological order. I'm on chapter three. Hehehe. *fail*

Actually, it's really not fail as I wrote the first two chapters almost completely from scratch. So it really is a lot of work behind me! But unlike last year when I finished my revisions in just under four weeks, I suspect this time it will take almost the whole six weeks that I have. The nice thing about that is that once I am finished, I will be about two weeks away from the release of WINGS and will be able to really concentrate on that!

Wish me luck!

Ciao!