So, about three weeks ago I had to give up my PC for about 4 days while the tech people upgraded my SSD drive. I, in my infinite wisdom, decided that the best use of my time during this period was to print out Challenging the Heart and edit it by hand. When I got my PC back 4 days later, I decided to keep going with the paper edits, and patted myself on the back when I finished all 271 pages! It was a job well done, and now I can send it over to the editor…
What I forgot in this endeavor was that I would now have to TYPE the edits into the document, which of course means that I disagreed with what past Ruby had done and decided I could do it better again, which lead to an entire chapter having to be rewritten to change the character POV because I wanted Kane’s thoughts on what happens, and we just weren’t getting those.
I have 50 more pages of edits to put into the story, which should hopefully be completed tomorrow, and then it is (finally) off to the editor.
I hope…
This did give me a chance, however, to compare how editing was on the computer versus on a paper copy, and honestly… now I see the appeal of editing on paper, even if it means you need to incorporate the edits back in. (Though I do think someone should create a program that lets you scan in your chicken scratch and its all nicely typed up for you… that would be awesome.)
When I was editing on my computer I was going chapter by chapter, checking the flow against what came before in the chapter I was writing. What I WASN’T doing was also getting a vibe for how that chapter fit into the overall story. When I got it onto paper though, I was not only editing that chapter, but checking that I hadn’t messed things up because I forgot what I had done before (news flash… I had. It’s fixed now… I promise).
Have I cut a lot from the initial draft? Yes. Is the second (and really third) draft better? Also yes. Its more cohesive and less stream of consciousness. So tomorrow it should be going to my editor (I hope), and then it is available for those looking for an Advance Copy on November 25, 2025. You can sign up here to receive early access as an advanced reader!
Thank you for reading!
