Thursday, April 19, 2012

Line Edits!!!

My line edits arrived this week. I can haz feelings of being a real writer?

For those who don't know, line edits are the low-down nitty-gritty edits. I've already been through the broad, plot-based edits. Now my fabulous editor, Maggie Lehrman, is focusing her genius brain on phrasing, sentence structure, word use, character emotions, etc.

The last time I felt this excited, book-wise, was during my trip to New York City last summer to meet my agent and editor.

There are certain milestones in the life of a debut novelist that instill soul-numbing terror or heart palpitations of delight (and I have an irregular heartbeat to begin with). Line edits cause both.

On the one hand, I'm thrilled.  I'm in the game; I'm part of the great writing conversation. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING.

On the other hand, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. This is officially the penultimate chance to fix, you know, every single word in my manuscript because PEOPLE ARE GOING TO READ IT NEXT YEAR.

Next come copyedits, and then THIS IS REALLY, REALLY HAPPENING.

6 comments:

  1. Congrats on receiving your line edits! I'm really looking forward to copy edits (I'm a copyediting nerd myself), but I think line edits will definitely send me into a panic. A GOOD panic. But still.

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  2. Wooo-hoooo! Get ready.... Very exciting!

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  3. Hooray, Hooray!! I think I didn't change enough during line edits and ended up wanting to change a lot during first pass pages... I hope they don't send the firing squad for me! Have fun!!

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  4. Awesome, congratulations!
    Bruce Gold

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  5. It's the home stretch - yippee. I can feel your book in my hands already.

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  6. This is so cool! We're living vicariously through you :)

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