Editing Then and Now

I’m on to the next step for my work in progress. That’s how it can be for a writer. While one book has just come out for readers. a writer is often putting the finishing touches on a new story. That’s how it was for me with The Song of Sourwood Mountain releasing three weeks ago on May 7th while I was writing the last scenes in my next story.

Some of you have already read The Song of Sourwood Mountain. If so, thank you. One person told me she read the story in two days. That’s fun to know, but the book took me months to write. Then more months went by while the story was undergoing edits, finding the perfect title, and getting wrapped in that beautiful cover.

My books go through several editing phases. First is my own first edits. When I’m writing a book, I generally work in chapters. Some writers work in scenes, but I like chapters. Once I finish a chapter, I reread it and do immediate edits. Sometimes if a deadline isn’t breathing down my neck, I will stop at around 100 typed pages to reread and do some small edits to see if the story is progressing the way I hoped. After that, I usually just do those right now edits whenever I get to the end of a chapter. Once I find those magic words the end, then I go back to the beginning and read through the book. On this read through I only do minor editing but I note where more editing will be needed.

I breathe a sigh of relief if I think the story is better than I thought it was while I was writing it. I nearly always think the story is going to be awful at some time while I’m writing. But once I do that first read through and begin to believe the story has hope and might actually be one some readers will want to read, I go back to the beginning and work through it chapter by chapter. I edit one chapter at a time. I edit through the chapter once and then go back to the beginning of the chapter and work through it again. I always find things on that second run through that I missed.

Once I get to that last chapter and the end, I like to go back to the beginning and make another read through, sometimes reading the story aloud. I don’t always have time to do that if I need to meet a deadline, or as has happened the last couple of times, an extended deadline. I’m thankful for understanding editors who can sometimes give a writer a couple of extra weeks to try to polish a manuscript.

The polishing is different now than it was when I was writing my stories on a typewriter and not a word processor. The sheet up top is edits I did on my first draft of my middle readers book, Discovery at Coyote Point, back in 1988.  I did a lot of marking out and handwriting in edits and improvements. That page has many edits. I keep it to show kids when I do school talks to help them see that a first draft sometimes needs some tweaks, or a lot of tweaks. That was edits then.

Then somewhere along the way, I got a computer with a keyboard and a word processor. Editing changed. Sometimes became a little scary. Before when I crossed something out and penciled in a new line, I could still see the old line. I could go back. But now I was editing bravely by deleting and typing in the new words. I have been saved many times by Control Z, that can put back what I just deleted. Sometimes I kept an original draft copy and a copy I was editing.

Once I send my digital manuscript off to the editor, the first rounds of editing suggested by the publishers begin. At that point, I use the track edits setting so that every word crossed out is there and whatever words I add are in a different color so the editor can see what I’ve changed. The following is an edited bit of a scene featuring Ada June and Bo from The Song of Sourwood Mountain.

After this round of edits, the story goes through more editing from another editor who points out miscues I missed and all sorts of ways to improve the reading ease of the story. Run on sentences are chopped apart. Words used too many times are cut or changed. The same word used in the same paragraph more than once is edited to make the writing fresher. Many of these changes are suggested in the margins in editing comments.

Finally proofreaders at the publishers read the story to catch things the other editors and I have missed. I get one more chance to read through the story and make sure there aren’t any typos or other mistakes. At last, after all that, you readers get to be the next to read through to see if we were careful with the edits and didn’t get too much wrong.

The truth is, none of us are perfect. Even after all those read throughs and edits, errors can slip past us, writers and publishers. While that happens, you can trust that we try to make the story as easy to read as we can.

What kind of slip ups in books  have you noticed? Did it bother you or affect how you felt about the story?

I heard from all my newsletter winners. Beth from Maryland chose River to Redemption for her book prize. Andrea from Wyoming chose Along a Storied Trail, and Twila from Misouri chose Scent of Lilacs. The books are in the envelopes just waiting for me to head to the Post Office.

Get your thinking caps on. I hope to start a new Mystery Picture game next Wednesday. I think I have found at least one mystery photo.

As always, thanks for reading.