The Writing Process - Part 3

Editing

My agent tends to ask to see my manuscript about a month before it is due with my editor. I try to send it to her promptly then spend a lot of time cleaning my house. It’s an activity I have normally neglected for months but it also helps keep my mind off my fears that I’m about to be told my book is rubbish. It’s nice, too, to do something practical instead of spending hours hunched over a laptop.

My agent usually comes back to me with lots of comments which I try to address before she sends the manuscript off to the editor.

Then I clean my house again.

My editor then comes back to me with a report comprising several pages plus in depth notes on the manuscript. Most of these tend to be at the ‘structural edit’ level – plot issues, inconsistent chronology, repetition, problems with character etc. She’s very good at suggesting ways of rectifying a problem which I find really helpful. I usually have around six weeks to address these issues then the manuscript might go backwards and forwards a few times until we are both happy.

 It then goes off to the copy editor who fact-checks the novel and irons out any further inconsistencies.

Finally it goes to the proof-reader. 

I do a final read-through of the manuscript then it’s out of my hands.

Then it’s time to start researching the next book.