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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Final Edit Update and My Particular Process

I am seeing the light of day as far as the Final Edit of my e-book, "Good Ole Boys."  BTW:  A novel, before publication, before release, shows up in quotes as I have done in the previous sentence.  After being published, it is shown in italics, like so:  Good Ole Boys (CMS 17.213).  I should have my debut novel uploaded tomorrow, if things go as planned. 

But life tends to throw us curve balls as most of us can attest.  I had a day job until the end of October, so as expected, that second workplace ate up hours and left little of them for my own writing, after I spent the requisite hours on my freelance projects.  Having shucked that day-job obstacle, I willingly took on NaNoWriMo--what a thrilling ride!  During NaNo, I finished my prequel to my debut novel coming out tomorrow.  So the prequel will be my next book to go through a Final Edit.

As for the Final Edit process, you can drive yourself nuts with it.  I had to let go of my serious nature a little and just relax.  My particular version of a Final Edit consists of three parts:  part Margie Lawson's trademarked Deep EDITS system (dealing more with the language, the art, of storytelling), part Carol Hughes's DEEP Story construct (dealing more with the plot and the structure) and then part general overview of DOs and DON'Ts.  Making sure your characters are 3-D and come alive in print.  Also, watching for red flags, putting out fires, like scenes that don't work or feel too contrived, anything (actions, words) that depart from the theme of your book. 

It's a big undertaking. 

But, hey, once we do that, we can truly be proud of ourselves.  Plus, surely it gets somewhat easier each time, right?

Have a good week, y'all!

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