I finished reading my line edits. It was harder than I thought. First, there were the changes made by the copy editor — some subtle and good for the story, others jarring and not my voice at all — and then there was the knowledge that what I was reading was the finished product, for the most part. I couldn't delete scenes or rewrite them or shift them around. What is there, is there.
And I'm not sure how I feel about it. I cringed in parts. Not always because of jarring CE changes, but simply because of the characters and what they were up to. Wow, I wrote that? Sometimes I was happy about it. Sometimes I was surprised — and not necessarily in a good way.
Every dream has a trade off. I would not trade this dream of being a published author for anything, but sometimes I'm surprised at how it has its negatives too. Once that baby is in print, it's out there. I'll have to learn to be tougher about it, I think.
Today, I begin inputting the corrections for my editor. And I still have my current WIP to get busy on again. Going away for the holiday threw me off. *sigh* What's on your plate this month, in addition to all the holiday craziness? December is always sooo busy, isn't it? It sure is for me, whether I mean it to be or not….
It’s normal to be worried – but don’t be. There’s a lot of goodwill out here for you. And there are many, many people who can’t wait to read your book. 🙂
I hadn’t considered the issue of ignoring advice totally contrary to your voice –as an unpublished I guess you’ve more freedom to ignore advice because it’s YOUR book. Once you’re on your way to publication, well then it’s the TEAM’s book and you’ve to take into account the other stakeholders. Wow, has to be hard.
But the great thing is you’re learning from it and using the experience to reach your goal.
Cheering you on from the sidelines,
Rashda
Hi, Suzanne! Thanks for the good wishes. 🙂 I’m rereading as I input the corrections to make sure I didn’t miss anything — and I actually like it better today. LOL, that’s the thing about writers, huh? 🙂
Hi, Rashda! Thanks for that brining advice, btw. 🙂 Yes, when you don’t have a deadline or editor or anything, it’s easy to ignore what others tell you — and I did it plenty!
But yes, your analogy of the book belonging to the team now is a good one! I’m feeling much better about the whole thing today. The changes aren’t much, just small niggling things. But I’ve never had an entire manuscript edited like this before, so of course I would be sort of surprised at some of it. 🙂