This is a very detailed editing process of all three books, which has taken me nine months, so far, in total. I’m not working on it full-time, though. I doubt I could do that, when the two hours a day that I do makes my shoulders burn and my legs restless. I don’t know how people manage to work at computers all day, every day. Heroes, the lot of them – or maybe it doesn’t bother them as much as it does me.
In years to come, I’ll be doing more of this, though, so I’ll have to get used to it and build my tolerance for it. As with my protagonist Zoe, my active mothering years are coming to an end as my youngest child nears sixteen and then I’ll be a writer who does some mothering, instead of a mother who does some writing.
So, I’ve got to do another, faster, editing process, next, of all three books. This will consist of a relatively fast but careful read-through, to check for flow and probably take out some of the commas I’ve put in this time.
Then, I’ve got a 66-point list of editing notes, to attend to, which raises issues like, “Do we know anyone with the same name as that character?” Even if we know someone who knows someone, it’s a potential problem.
I want to be completely, 100% happy with these books when they go out for sale. Having said that, I know there’ll be at least one mistake we missed, somewhere in the checking process, because there always is, no matter how carefully you check. But if I’ve got the flow right and the story is absorbing enough, you won’t notice.
Fingers crossed, huh?