Hello friends and the occasional relative! (yes, I may use this as a tag line from now on). I have been asked to give you all an update on my progress in the wonderful, if grim, World Belt. The Slaves and The Djinn (a slightly more upbeat title than The Killer and The Dead I …
Tag: Editing
What happens when you deviate from the process: Collector’s edition edition.
Not the catchiest title, I admit. But I’m here to share how a royal screw up of mine added a gloriously horrific typo to my book AFTER it had been laboriously proofread and judged error free. And I did it as part of the process, not on a whim. Well, okay, there were whims involved, …
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The Writing Life: SPFBO 2020 and an update or three.
Good evening, whatever timezone you may be in. Quick updates: Proofing run one is done. I have made some minor corrections based on feedback, and then, jaunting down a word-search rabbit hole, I noticed a thing. I'm fixing the thing, (and it is a small thing) before proofing run two begins. I have finalised the …
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The Writing Life: Missed Updates
No blogs since August? I knew it had been a while, but it is a surprise to see so much time has elapsed, when almost every weekend I have considered writing an update. You know, I finished the verbal read-through, I finished the resolution of my last notes (hahahaha!) on continuity, I finished a proof …
The Writing Life: The Power of the Spoken Word
This is an update. After losing/significantly depleting my GAF as previously described, I decided to do my usual (i.e. done once before) final step of reading my book out loud to myself as a way to interrogate each sentence and catch egregious typos. This is now done. Yay. I fixed some sentences here and there, …
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The Writing Life: Chopsticks and Dust
Sometimes you just have to start writing in order to get anywhere. This is another made up as I go along blog - welcome to spontaneity land! I am still editing. That basement full of dust covered tables? I'm working on them with chopsticks, one tiny clump at a time. I can't say it's ideal, …
The Writing Life: 107 & 1/2 steps to go…
Yep, I’m not making it up. In the two weeks since I last posted a blog I have managed to get just over halfway through step 1 of my intended 108+ steps to victory and final completion of The Killer and The Dead. I’m rethinking some of the steps. This is the rabbit hole folks. …
The Writing Life: 108+ Steps from Victory (Or – Keyword Search Hell Awaits!)
You know, I really wanted to be done with The Killer and The Dead by now. I haven’t fallen victim to perfectionism, honest. What has happened is I have realized in the course of reading the book again, that in addition to making semi-final additions to the manuscript for clarity, plot, and theme advancement, and …
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The Writing Life : Speed Bumps
You get yourself a little momentum going. You think "Yeah, my voice is a little scratchy because I've beeen reading my book out loud, and some tricky parts of it repeatedly, for hours." Nope, you've got that seasonal cold thingy. A brain of snot. Dawesomb. It happens. That strange lightheaded inability to focus because no …
The Writing Life: Momentum
Another rapid freehand blog today. Which means five plus edits after publication - my apologies to those of you who get version one mailed to you! My face is hot. I think because I've been talking for hours. To myself. I've been reading The Killer and The Dead aloud, and I'm here to say (thankfully …
Roderick T. Macdonald 