I’ve been gone a while. In this period of absence I’d like to say I’ve been finishing off the edits to The Killer and The Dead. Nope. I’ve been working, dieting (dieting takes a whole lot of my mental energy, it turns out – I really have to focus on not eating, hahaha!), and doing …
Continue reading The Writing Life: The Dusty Road to Copy Edit Completion
It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to crank out a blog of an evening. I completed the line edit in double time, missing deadline by a day, but I’ll take it, and my editor is a forgiving soul, for which I am grateful. The essential truth of why I write fantasy – …
What is line editing? Well, if developmental edits are big picture issues looking at story, plot, character and setting among other things, and copy editing is getting down to the nuts and bolts of grammar, then line editing exists somewhere in between. Line editing is taking your manuscript to a spa: to sweat off the …
Continue reading The Writing Life: The Long Road of Line Editing
Once again, the title says it all. My developmental edit has been submitted. Much gladness and rejoicing has ensued, tempered by the knowledge that more is to come. A writer's life for me! Also - the kindle version of The Thief and The Demon is on sale! Catch it at the absurdly cheap price of …
This is definitely a doubt based post. Unofficial doubts part 6, but for the fact that I've accepted what I'm worrying about, and am going to bulldoze on anyway. This is, admittedly, a newer one for me, but a variant I think on what I have been through in the past and led me to …
Continue reading The Writing Life: Facing Uncertainty in Editing
Sorry for the lack of blogs, I’ve been deep in the editorial jungle, hacking away with the machete of no remorse. Oh wait, this is the developmental edit – I’ve been adding more than subtracting, as is usual for me! Part of that is recognizing where I the writer take my own knowledge of the …
This is going to be brief, because I should be editing, not blogging. I refer you to this blog. It is far more true now for me than it was a couple of weeks ago! But, here's my quick thought. Anyone who is any good at cuesports, be it pool, snooker, or billiards; often has …
In my recent blog on Bram Stoker’s Dracula I threw in a line that while viewing that film multiple times I chose not to see its flaws. I could, if I wanted, pick away at what some might perceive as problems in the movie, but I chose not to, because I’d much rather enjoy those …
So: thoughts have been gathered, and revision begins. There is a lot to do. So right now I’m oscillating between this. And this. The thing is not to blindly rush in, or panic about how much there is to do, though that is tempting. I have to remind myself not to get bogged down …
So I received my developmental notes for The Killer and The Dead last week. These notes were a collection of thoughtful comments and suggestions on plot, structure, pacing, writing, setting, and character. Plus a ton of in-text comments on specific aspects of the book, good and bad, pointing out places where improvements could be made, …
Roderick T. Macdonald 