What I learnt this week: 30th April 2015

The nitty gritty 

I’ve just received the line edits for Search for Truth. Yes, come on , you should know all about this one now. It’s about a tale of love in the pharmaceutical industry. Cue photographs to get you into the spirit.

Pharma journals Capsules from clipart

So, this round of edits is a line by line sense check of my manuscript, and what it means for me is my final chance to make any real changes. It’s a daunting prospect, but it’s also the part I’m better at. I find it relatively easy to look at a sentence and check it reads okay next to the sentence before it, and the sentence after it. I’m rubbish at taking the paragraph, the chapter, the whole story and seeing where it works, and where it doesn’t. This is because I get too bogged down in the nitty gritty. Removing the extra that’s which jump into the sentence when I’m least expecting it (sneaky little devils). Swopping my sentences round and swopping them back. Taking out an and to make two more definitive sentences. Then perhaps putting it back again because it’s too stilted otherwise. Okay, I faff a bit. 

It’s why I’m so grateful to have an editor to help me. And this might sound sad, but having incorporated her suggestions from my first round of edits, I’m now looking forward to reading this manuscript again. Okay, I know exactly what’s going to happen, but I have a chance to see whether the changes I made really work. I thought they did at the time, but this read through will be with (relatively) fresh eyes (I doubt fresh is ever a word I can use to describe myself now…).

So bring it on. Let’s just hope I’ll still be this excited about Search for Truth this time next week.

Of course after that, I will only get to read the manuscript one more time, at proof. This is when I really can’t make any major changes. And when suddenly major changes are the only things I want to make…

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: