Edwin Page's Blog: Writing Life - Posts Tagged "redrafting"

The redrafting of my second historical novel to be set in Cornwall in south-west England is going well. Called Song of the Sea, it is due for release as a paperback and Kindle edition on 2nd February 2015. However, I would say that if writing is the pleasure, then for me redrafting is the pain that follows.

Song of the Sea has now been printed out and sent to my editor after redrafting and then tweaking. There's a mixture of nervousness and excitement at the prospect of someone else reading and assessing the work. It's a bit like sending a child out into the world and hoping they will be well received by those they meet.

I have spent a few days away from the book so that I can begin the edit with a relatively fresh pair of eyes. To me, redrafting is the first process after a manuscript is finished and involves making important and sometimes substantial tweaks and changes, as well as any major deletions. Editing is the second process and is minor in comparison, looking for small errors such as a 'had' instead of a 'has.' It also involves little tweaks and the deletion of unnecessary words, finely honing the book.
Very happy to see the first pre-orders of the Kindle edition of Song of the Sea have started to be made and looking forward to its release on the 2nd February very much.

Editing is the process of polishing a manuscript. It involves paring it down; removing words that are unnecessary. It also involves making minor tweaks to increase the flow of sentences or clarify a point, as well as hunting down the small mistakes, like an 'is' instead of an 'if' and an 's' missing from the end of a word.

It takes a lot of concentration to spy all such mistakes and is quite different from simply reading the work. I think many readers do not realise how much focus us needed for editing.

I read the comments of one reader who asked how hard could it be to find the small mistakes? Well, it's actually quite hard, especially as our own worst enemy is our brain. The brain automatically inserts missing words or changes ones already present so that a sentence makes sense, and so when you edit you have to consciously try and overcome this element of the mind in order to uncover the mistakes.

This is why the editing of Song of the Sea is taking so long. If I were simply reading it, I would have finished days ago, but I am less than halfway through editing it after over a week of working many hours a day.

The 1st draft of a manuscript is like a rough gemstone hewn from the mine of your conscious and subconscious mind. It needs to be shaped by the process of redrafting so that its facets gain definition and polished by editing in order that it shine. Through these processes it becomes bright and sparkles with its full potential.