Good evening, everyone. Here's another launch team update.
The edited manuscript is back. I took a week off from work to spend every minute available going through the corrections and suggestions. Now, after a week-long marathon, I've completed 28 chapters, with 7 more to go. Crutch words. Repetitions. Redundancies. And lyrics. Yes, that’s an issue that wouldn't go away. Paraphrasing is legit, but that's telling, rather than showing.
And, I can only commend Jill's patience. Just imagine what it feels like to go through a scene when the characters purse their lips and sigh dozens of times in a row. Or when you have "he wrapped his arms around it" repeating itself every other paragraph. (How many arms does he have?)
When you re-read and re-edit the text over and over, you just stop noticing. But even the beta readers mentioned that some words (among them - smirk) repeated themselves way too many times. Looks like I really have to work on my vocabulary. And read more about emotions and body language. (But that’s for the next book, whenever that happens.)
Meanwhile, I have seven more chapters to go. Then I'm sending the manuscript back to the editor for proofreading. Among other urgent matters: cover design, sales blurb, back matter, even the author’s website, tramwell.com ... Lots of work, so little time. But getting the manuscript ready for proofreading comes first.
Have a great week,
Leonard.