Hey, my loyal readers, I am happy to say I’m making progress with the Consortium prequel. It seems like I am on track for a summer release as I had hoped.
So, here’s my process, in case you’re curious. Sometimes I will write an outline. Most times, I don’t as I usually take the book on a different path from the outline. However, the outline comes in handy with the opening of several chapters. Once I feel I have finished the first draft of the book, I go back and read it like one of you, a reader. That’s where I see all the mistakes in grammar, continuity, and shit like that. I rely on a pair of mark up pens for this task. They dry up way too fast.
Then I go back to the beginning and do a first edit. This takes the most amount of time, as I don’t like turning over poor manuscript to my editor full of crappy things I could fix. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at editing, as I learn more with each pass. This edit is mostly for grammar and spelling. Then, you guessed it; I do it again, adding continuity and fixing poor sentence structure to the process.
On to the next round of editing
I’m nearly finished with this round of edits to my book. See, I’m I’m making progress with the Consortium prequel. I only have about 4,000 words to get through before I move on to the next phase. After that, I build the candidate manuscript.
That’s when I do another read through, allowing a couple of days away from the book to give my brain time to ignore everything I have stuffed in it regarding the book. I say ‘candidate’ as I know there will be more editing to do. If I am happy with my latest read through, I’ll turn the manuscript to my editor and a couple of beta readers. They are the best. They find shit that my mind constantly slips over. A common error is writing ‘him’ instead of ‘her.’ I’ve yet to find a checker that can find these errors that my human editor and beta readers cannot.
Once that clears, it’s time to format for publishing. That I can do. I have that process down pat. I even design my own covers. I’ve gotten better at that over the years, too. I have yet to get started on cover design and a title for the book, but I have taken copious notes over the past many months.
That done, I am ready to offer it to you, my loyal and faithful readers. Thank you all for your support and understanding of my difficult time in my home life. It’s been a draining challenge, to be sure. I love you all.
Please send me a comment if you get so inspired. I’d love to hear from you.
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