Many thanks for dropping by to my blog.
For further information please visit my website http://www.michelle-smart.com/

Friday 29 June 2012

Edits Gone!

First let's start with my apologies for letting it go three weeks without an update. Sorry!

I received my first batch of edits from my new super-duper editor and guess what? Yep, wholesale revisions. I should have guessed. But (and yes, there is a big butt here), the edits/revisions actually took me back to my original story, the one I had in my heart when I first wrote it over two years ago. Three rounds of revisions with M&B had made it a fundamentally different story and, with one round with Entangled, I got the core of my story back.

I'm not going to lie. These edits were hard work. Maybe I could have cheated and cut and paste a number of scenes from the original but my writing has evolved tremendously over the past two + years and I wanted to do justice to it.

With these edits I have learned a great deal too - namely how to use Track Changes! I have also learned that using Track Changes gives me a headache.

Anyway, the edits have gone. I should expect the second round in a fortnight or so. Which means I have time to put my feet up... Erm, no. A couple of days before I completed the edits I got an email from my M&B editor with her thoughts on my partial for them (everyone keeping up?). Luckily she really liked the way the story was progressing but she thought it needed a bit more spark - my hero wasn't really reacting to the situation and thus my heroine could not react to him. With one teensy suggestion, it's changed the whole dynamic of the book and got me out of the pickle I had got myself into. My hero and heroine are both damaged, repressed people and, 30,000 words in, I had reached the stage where I could not see how they were ever going to get it together. I had hit the proverbial brick wall. I figured there was no point in carrying on until I had heard from the ed and luckily, that one little suggestion has helped me no end. I need to revise (ok, rewrite) everything I have done and send the 30,000 words to her in a fortnight. Just in time to receive my second batch of edits from Entangled...

I also need to complete my Cinderella Zombie Killer story if I am going to get it finished in time for the call-out deadline.

Oh yes, and the kids break up for the summer holidays in three weeks.

Do you every wish there were an extra couple of hours in the day?

And do you know what? I'm loving every minute of it!

Thanks for reading - I promise to try not to leave it so long before my next post. xxx

2 comments:

  1. Woohoo on so much good news! I suggest coffee. Lots and lots of coffee ;)

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Blimey you sound busy! Know what you mean re the kids being off, my productivity is set to nosedive in a few weeks time. Great to hear how many exciting things you've got going on xx

    ReplyDelete