Editing – Labor of Love
Writing is a labor of love. Lately it is the labor piece of that saying that has caught my attention. I have to get my edits done and they are a long slow labor to go through the manuscript. It is during the work of edits that I once again fall in love with my characters and refine them so you will too. The labor and the love are intertwined. That doesn’t mean one isn’t more significant on a given day. If I finally get some time to work on my book projects and come to it tired, it will be mostly labor. If I am well rested when it is editing time the tweaks will lean to the love side of the scale.
My characters become so real in my mind. I do know them well. I know what they would and wouldn’t say in a situation. I picture them in my mind I hear the voices. (Hearing voices hmmmm!) When I read the segments of the book aloud I often go back and add more description or refine it to sound like I imagine them. If I am to develop a faithful readership then the readers have to fall in love with my characters too. This may take several editing rounds to get them where I want them. There is that labor part again winding itself around my favorite characters.
In my soon to be published book “How Far is Safe?” I have a boy and his donkey for main characters. This pair have quite a tough start, but it is their relationship and dedication that shines through in the story. Because I have had many long-term relationships with animals I know I am getting that part right. I still have edits to it though, often more grammatical or typo.
Here I am with the late Jassper, a true character. While not my donkey I had a long relationship with him. He became an inspiration to write this story.
I have lost track of how many times I have gone through “How Far is Safe?” in its preparation for publication. Despite due diligence, last week I found a word form that should have been from! YIKES! Nothing like a form to make you go back to page one and start again. Darn my mind’s eye for seeing what it thinks should be there and not the actual ink on the paper.
I am here, powered by coffee and working on edits. You will get to read my labor of love when “How Far is Safe?” is released this summer! Follow this blog to get the updates and be one of the first to get your copy.