The manuscript is back from the copy editor already!

I think that’s a good thing. She said it was a good story, and this is a PhD in English, so I’m going to believe her and start working on those query letters!

A few niggles – some instances where I spelled a minor character’s name one way in one chapter, and slightly different in a later chapter, some words I hyphenated one time and didn’t hyphenate later – that sort of thing. And, of course, the inevitable missed comma errors (I tend to add too many) and misspellings that the Spell-Check doesn’t catch because they’re real words (just not the word I intended to spell).

Overall, I’m satisfied that “my baby” is ready to send out into the dangerous world of Publishing. I never had kids, so I don’t really know, but it feels less like sending a child off and more like entering a science project in a huge science fair and hoping for a prize. I did my best work – and I know that will improve as I keep practicing the craft! – and now it’s time to let the judges see what I created.

Keep your fingers crossed!

I’m doing the last read-through of the novel before I send it off to the editor.

This is a little nerve-wracking. I’m at the stage where I’ve read it so many times it’s starting to sound like crap. I’m forcing myself to keep going and look for the continuity errors I’m supposed to be checking for, but it’s hard to keep from trying to rewrite – or even to start the whole damn thing over again!

How do you keep from tossing the manuscript into the trash when you get to this point?