Death by Revision

I did debate leaving a post last Monday when I got an email from the editor with my full MS but to be honest I was far too excited to do anything but to tweet and leave a brief message on the eHarlequin site - I wanted to get stuck right in! And now, six days later, the revisions have been sent.

The email was wonderful. The best part said: "You've done a great job with these and they've worked really well in making your story stronger - fantastic!". Oh yes, I was euphoric, head in the clouds, the lot.

But there was also three main points (tweaks as she called them) that she thought I needed to tackle to make the story even stronger still. On the face of it none of the tweaks were major - for example one of them was for me to "feel free to keep her (the heroine) strong and sassy throughout". There were also three further minor points she thought needed clarifying a bit further.

So why Death by Revisions? I printed my MS off and sat down with a pen and notepad to go through the whole lot line-by-line. I then made my revisions and printed it off again. And sat down with a pen and notepad to go through it line-by-line. And then I made the further revisions... By this point I was starting to panic. The editor had asked if I could get the revisions done by the "beginning of next week" and -I had faithfully promised they would be in her inbox by the time she got to the office Monday morning (tomorrow).

I truly felt - and still do feel - that I have done the best job I can. But... there is a big siren ringing out that maybe the changes I have made are not strong enough and that she is going to read it and throw it out of the nearest in window in disgust.

But now it is too late. I have hit the send button and my fate is now out of my hands. All I know for certain is that doing the revisions felt wonderful and that no matter what doubts I have now, I wouldn't swap this feeling for anything.