As most of you know, I’ve been editing my enormous manuscript.

I have now officially completed the first 405 pages of the printed manuscript, which is book one, or part one of three. To say that this was no great feat (for me), I would be lying. Each day I worked away on a chapter, making notes and corrections as I went. Re-verifying details through out the story as I go (since I am still technically doing this, I decided to write this sentence in the present tense), and trying to ensure consistency as I go (both character and plot).

So far, things seem to be in the style and flow that I want it to be. However, I’m also the author of it, so the pacing for me sounds right, but might be too slow in some areas for other people reading it. This is why, of course, I’ll have other people reading it and looking for specific things as they go. I look for everything, others focus on specific elements to help me narrow things down and make the right corrections and changes needed.

At this point in time, I do believe that I’ll be able to get through the whole thing before November. I’m, naturally, talking about the initial edit. The time consuming part will be giving it to different people, having them edit it, and ensuring I get it all back to make the corrections digitally as well. I am hoping to have all the returned copies back to me by November, so that I can spend December going through and making all the corrections I need to make. Then printing it out again, and ensuring that the story is still working.

Preferably, I would like to have the entire first edit, others comments as well and corrected, done before November, since I will be doing another read through of the story before I send it off to publishers. With peoples feedback, I don’t think I’ll need to have everyone look at it again, but I might get one person to go over it one more time to ensure that it works after the corrections.

I would love to have this completely ready to go by December, but I am hesitant in making that my final goal. I do, however, believe that getting it to a publisher by 2021 is realistic and I can do it.

This process has been tedious. Editing is difficult and requires a lot of focus, attention, and consistency. If you walk away from editing, and come back days or weeks later, you’re liable to miss things like consistency in plot and character. Or, I should say, I am likely to miss those things. For the most part, my system for editing is working, though I came across one snag. I made a note on the manuscript so that others might be able to help me with fixing it.

I am hoping that the last two parts will go smoothly. I have a lot to get through, that’s for sure, but I’m certain I can do it.