The Transformation of a Manuscript (and Me)

We are in the final editing round for my next Children’s book and it blows me away to watch how a rough draft will go through so much transformation. Before submitting my manuscript, I thought it was “done.” Then, as I reread it (after not looking at it for a while), I had some new ideas and it got a substantial edit before I even sent it in for the first professional editing rounds! About 30 new lines were added and some were cut loose which allowed the storyline to flow better.Editing is so critical. Obviously. But it is so amazing to me to watch a work transform and grow into what it is truly capable of, just by sharing it with some new eyes. The neat thing about self publishing, is at the end of the process, the edits that my editor sends are my call. I get to choose which to keep. Now I know she’s a professional editor, so I do take her suggestions fairly seriously. But there are still times when I liked my word choice or the flow it had before. Other times, her suggestion leads to a new wording idea. It is really fun to experience. (Just let me adjust my nerd glasses here for a second