It’s (Still!) Copyedit Time …
Yes indeed, still working my way through that manuscript and definitely whittling it down!
The process overall is going smoothly, although I have realised that I still have an awful lot to learn about American spelling. I thought I was getting pretty good at it, but as it turns out there are still a very surprises in the mix, like “skeptical” with a “k” instead of “sceptical” with a “c.” Still, it keeps life interesting! π
Recently, a few people have asked me to explain the difference between an “edit” and a “copyedit”?
The way I look at it, the “edit” is about the story. For example, is the plot actually working? Are the characters real and believable? Should the end of the story be at the beginning, or the beginning at the end? Is there a giant continuity error lurking in the middle of your fundamental plot premise like an incipient black hole that will never allow your book to escape the event horizon … You know, that kind of thing! The edit process will likely pick up small stuff as well, typos and grammatical errors and so on, but that’s not it’s primary purpose—the edit is about getting the big picture right.
The copyedit, on the other hand, is definitely about sweating the small stuff—and if you find yourself encountering big picture isues still, that’s ‘be afraid, be very afraid’ territory! The small stuff, by and large, is about spelling and grammar, missing words, repetition of words and phrases, and the smaller array of continuity/consistency errors, eg if your hero has black hair in the first chapter and is blond by mid-manuscript (but hasn’t been to the hairdresser and had foils in-between times) then that is the kind of discrepancy that the copyedit process should pick up. And it is important, because an array of small errors may well shake a reader’s confidence in, as well as their enjoyment of the work.
So I take both the edit and copyedit processes very seriously, because they are both vital to the overall quality of the work.
OK, down to business! As of this morning, progress to copyedit completion is:
- Target pages per day to finish this week: 73
- Pages completed to date: 509—which puts me offically over 2/3rds of the way through the total manuscript
- Pages left until completion: 219 (including the glossary)
Plus, at the end of that I will have to write the Acknowledgments section and the dedication, but that should be the easy part!
2/3rds – awesome!
Toot toot!
Even further now, Jan–I am pretty sure I passed the 3/4 mark today–and for the first time ever made target: 73 pages completed!
3/4’s is great, well done.
Keep going, you’re almost there.
Sending more toots and some purrs from Shadow (the Fluff).
That purr from Shadow was a real booster! π I got through 63 pages today–10 pages off my 73 page goal, alas, but 63 better than nil! 5 chapters plus glossary left to go!
Phew sounds like hard work and I’m only reading about you doing it. Toot not too much further now ….
It is hard work, but worthwhile work, too, I think, to have a book you can be proud of. But because it is such attention-to-detail work I can always tell when I’m losing concentration–that marked-up-by-hand manuscript starts to get messy! π
thank you for that, it was very interesting. such a lot of worl for you though but exciting as it is near the end for this new book as well π
Margot, you are quite right, it is exciting and fun—and the best part right now is that I am really enjoying the story as I go along. Sometimes people say: don’t you get sick/tired of it after so many rounds? And I can honestly reply that I never do, because at each stage of a book there is work that you can do as the author to honour the muse, and that helps keep it fresh.
Oh, that’s a great idea, using two computers! I hope the great progress keeps up for you without interruptions π
Well, it does rather mean that my partner loses use of his pc while the process is going on—but we all have to sacrifice, right? π And the big kitchen table and the two screens is absolutely the way to go!