Phase 1: Complete.

Editing my novel. An Update.

To my dearest friends and followers,

Today I just want to give you an update about the progress on my book so far. In the grand scheme of things, I probably haven't gotten much done, but hey, I'm celebrating every small victory!!

I began 3 weeks ago with a printed manuscript of my novel from a friend and fellow author. I had mailed a copy of Beyond The Veil to him near the end of 2017. Within a few months, he had returned it to me with several sticky notes attached and many words throughout the manuscript were highlighted in pink. I was super grateful that he had taken the time to proofread it for me!!
I just finished going through it, reading only the small sections of the story near where the highlighted words are. I went through the document on my computer and fixed those errors, but also found several others that were not highlighted. There are probably still plenty more that were missed. Funny how it's so easy to miss things like that...

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy that I'm finished with the first go-over of my story!! I've just barely started the second phase 2. I'll be doing basically the same thing as phase 1, but from an edited copy from an indie publisher. They only edited the first half of the story, and that first half only made it through phase 1 of 3 phases. So, it's incomplete and it's a bit difficult to go through, but I'm working on it. XD
I'm hoping this step lasts 3 weeks to a month, like the first. Here's to shooting for the end of May...

After that, I will be able to go through the book a third time with only my own edits to make. It really is helpful to have the edits from other people, but like everything, it has it's drawbacks. The changes made, or suggested changes to be made, are mostly objective changes. Changes like repeating myself, or using the same word too many times in a sentence, or it's instead of its, etc. were made.
In phase 3, I'll be making changes that I want to. I want to know the purpose of why I wrote something into the story and expound on it if need be.

What I haven't decided is, do I continue to revise the document I am already working on? OR do I print the manuscript when I'm ready for the third step and retype the story with the manuscript as a reference?
Part of me is like, YES! that is the way to go, it'll make it easier to see what I want to fix and type it out on a blank canvas rather than to have a mess of words to try to work with.
BUT a part of me is also like, NO. I don't want to take the time to type out the entire story. That's a lot of work, ya know??
It would be great if I get phase 3 finished within 3 months or so, putting me at the end of August. After that, hopefully it needs to be polished only a little before I feel ready to think about publishing.
The main thing is not rushing. I want to get the editing done, but I don't want to do it with a goal in mind and feel rushed the entire time and then possibly publish something I'm not happy with. After all, I am writing the story I want to read...

I'd love to hear some feedback from you or if you have some tips on editing, please let me know in the comments. Thank you for stopping by to check out the update!! I look forward to keeping you up to date with the progress.

Yours truly,
Me