Maureen Bush

Reading Out Loud

I’m really messing with my own head. After reading the manuscript backwards, I’m now reading it out loud. All 200 pages.

Reading out loud helps me hear any bumps and awkwardness that I haven’t caught yet. Of course, I feel like an idiot doing it, so I make sure I’m alone before I start. And I take breaks, to avoid losing my voice too quickly. At least I’m not reading it out loud backwards.

Maureen

Reading Backwards

Once again, I’m reading a manuscript backwards. Well, to be precise, I’m reading the chapters in reverse order. It’s a technique recommended by Art Slade, and it’s truly vile. Strange. Awkward. Weird. But it’s enormously helpful, too.

I’ll be grumbling for days as I work my way back through my manuscript, but when I’m done, I know it will be better. And that’s always the point.

Maureen

An Odd Place

I’m at that odd place of having completed a story, at least in its general form; I’ve edited it as far as I can; and I’m not sure where I’m at. Is it any good? Does it hold together? What do I still need to work on?

So it’s time to share it, to have a few trusted readers give me their feedback. And to set it aside for a little while, so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes, and, I hope, a clear perspective.

That means, unfortunately, that it’s also time for admin work and taxes. Oh, woe. I’d rather be writing…

Maureen

Phone Editing

I just spent an hour on the phone with my editor, doing one more round with the page proofs for The Veil Weavers.

I had a digital version of the page proofs so we could flip pages easily, and even do searches to see whether a particular word had been used nearby. And still I found it difficult to work aurally.

I’ve noticed this before – I think best if I can see and manipulate the text.

Some edits I managed just by reading, and some I typed into a Word file, so I could see them and play with alternative phrasings. But I tired quickly.

We were also horrified to be finding typos. Still! Arghhhhh. How can they be so elusive? As a reader I hate typos – the lack of attention to detail makes me distrust the writer and the editor. So the thought of any making it into the printed book makes me shudder. The question is: will any elude us?

Maureen

Finished Proofing

All the corrections for the page proofs are in the mail. Now I’m really almost totally done editing The Veil Weavers.

There will be the inevitable phone calls, as other people find odds and bits to correct or consider changing, but this may be it for paperwork until the book itself arrives next spring. Or not. There’s something oddly unpredictable about publishing.

Maureen