Sarah Begg's Blog, page 3

July / August Roundup

 

One of my favourite things about winter is escaping winter and taking a summer holiday in the northern hemisphere – which is exactly what I did for 4 weeks! It was a fantastic break (Hawaii, New York, Canada) but I’ve been back for a couple of weeks now and am straight back into writing work.

Let the Queries Begin!

 

It’s been exactly 2 months since I received the reader's report on Kalileia from my editor. I thought I was taking such a long time to get through this, but 2 months isn’t so bad considering I rewrote the entire first third of the book and had a number of character issues that needed dealing with! Today I got through to the end, and am so happy that this is now not only done but that I’m thrilled with the result. And now… the querying begins!

June Roundup & Structural Editing

 

The year is half gone. How did that happen?? Anyway, on with things …

I received my structural edit/ reader’s report on Kalileia back at the end of May, which is a 17-page document going over the manuscript and highlighting areas that can be improved upon. My editor, Kate, did a fantastic job, and we had a coffee together afterwards to discuss the book. I was so happy to hear that the structure and plotline was all working well, since I’d been the most worried about the last third of the book and trying to get the ending right. To my surprise, it was the first third of the book that needed the most work, and of course once my attention had been drawn to the weaknesses there, I was amazed that I hadn’t seen them myself. Note: this is the power of a great editor. They can point out the parts that aren’t working, but more importantly explain to you why they aren’t working and offer some suggestions on how to improve them.