It's Groundhog Day in the United States, and I've completed the fifth draft of my boomer lit manuscript.
I'm not sure what the connection is, other than Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter, while I see daylight for my work in progress. It's not going to take me another 42 days before I hand over my novel-to-be to my editor. It will be more like six days, if not sooner.
Despite trimming scenes, eliminating a couple subplots, fixing typos, correcting grammar, tightening dialogue, and a few other things, the manuscript increased to 92,301 words, about 360 more than after the fourth draft.
As noted in my last post, I printed the manuscript so I could give it a more in-depth read. I gave my red pen a good workout. And, quite frankly, I'm tired of looking at it with a critical eye. It's about time to move on with it.
I'll go over the manuscript one more time, including another spell check, before I release it into the hands of my smart and savvy editor. She'll find some things, a few I simply overlooked, because I'm reading into passages what my brain tells me is there but really isn't. That's another reason you need a pair of fresh eyes—preferably on someone else's head.
Until the next time . . .
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| This is not Punxsutawney Phil |
Despite trimming scenes, eliminating a couple subplots, fixing typos, correcting grammar, tightening dialogue, and a few other things, the manuscript increased to 92,301 words, about 360 more than after the fourth draft.
As noted in my last post, I printed the manuscript so I could give it a more in-depth read. I gave my red pen a good workout. And, quite frankly, I'm tired of looking at it with a critical eye. It's about time to move on with it.I'll go over the manuscript one more time, including another spell check, before I release it into the hands of my smart and savvy editor. She'll find some things, a few I simply overlooked, because I'm reading into passages what my brain tells me is there but really isn't. That's another reason you need a pair of fresh eyes—preferably on someone else's head.
Until the next time . . .
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