September Starts and Line Edits Begin

Well they arrived - September and my line edits that is. I can't believe they're both here!

September is one of those months that just gets crammed full of stuff really quickly. But this year seems busier than most. Not only is it the Boy's birthday on Friday (with subsequent birthday party on the 12th) the pre-season hockey craziness has started with practices, exhibition games and a tournament all before the middle of the month. Don't even get me started on the back to school shopping and the doctor and dentist visits. I'm still on vacation this week so a lot of that stuff is being taken care of over the next few days but when school actually starts next week and I'm back to work that's when the busy schedule really kicks in. God forbid I don't look at my calendar for the week and forget about picking some kid up from somewhere or getting groceries in the one and a half hour of free time I might have on a Sunday.

So you'd think I'd be more stressed out about doing my line edits that arrived on Monday. Nope. I'm actually enjoying them. Hey, maybe that vow to be more optimistic is working! I'm looking on it as my opportunity to deal with some little bits and pieces of clean up now so I don't have to obsess over some silly, stupid error. Little things do matter and now that the larger story as a whole is pretty solidified we're getting to the little things. And it sure doesn't hurt that my editor has made it really easy for me either. Basically she suggests a small correction or change which is highlighted in the text and if I agree I accept the change and take out the highlight. If I have an alternate suggestion I write it in and highlight that in a different colour. Mostly I accept the changes (because my editor is just plain right most of the time) so that makes things way easier than if I was hunting and pecking through my words without her map already in place.

Going through revisions and line edits is very much like having to clean up a messy house. You feel overwhelmed at the thought of doing the revisions at first (the heavy duty mopping, vacuuming, dusting, putting things away) but you know you have to do that so you can get to the final touches of the clean up (the line edits): polishing that side table, straigtening those pillows, lighting a scented candle to make the whole house smell wonderful. I hate cleaning and don't know why I used that analogy but I do know that when my house is clean and straightened up I feel way better. And I know when I'm done with these edits I'll feel the same way about the book.