I love the editors in my life!
When I first began seriously writing, I had this lovely, but unrealistic notion, that my stuff was perfect. Or at the least, almost perfect. Of course, I learned otherwise very quickly.
While writing fan-fiction, I had several beta readers. (The equivalent of editors. Like the authors of fan-fiction, they do this for the love of the written word.) Some of them were very talented, meticulous editors. All of them showed me how to improve.
I realized editing is a layered process. Definitely not a one shot deal. As an author, I feel it is my responsibility to work with my editor and critically examine my words even as he or she is.
I may or may not have just finished the last edits on the sequel to The Mendel Experiment. My editor, Eric, nailed me on a lot of grammatical and other issues. More importantly, though, he provided the impetus for me to go through my manuscript word for word. Twice, so far.
Pat, the editor for my first novel, My House of Dreams, went through the story many times. The novel, which was well over 200 pages was pared down to 180 pages and it is a tight, well-flowing story.
Thank you, Pat and Eric. God bless editors!
(Coming up- adventures of the last month)
