Edit, Edit, Edit... and Edit some more!

So... I went online this morning to post a new blog post for you guys, and realized I had yet to write one! Oops! I blame my extra, New Years post for throwing me off. I wanted to sort of talk about where I am at in the whole publishing process with the book. It's been a couple weeks since I last updated you guys.

I received my final edit from my editor, Lauren, earlier last week. Who is Lauren, and what does this mean?
Lauren is a friend of mine from college who not only can critique my English grammar, but also German... that is, if I knew German. But she does. So that's kind of awesome. She also has two super, and I mean, SUPER cute little boys... that I am sure did not interrupt her AT ALL while she was editing my manuscript. ;)
And:
Receiving my final edit means, my work now gets even MORE fun. I now get to go through my manuscript for the umpteenth time and make changes. I actually don't mind this process, because I love reading my book. ;p But at the same time, I think I am starting to memorize... well... all of it. I guess that is a good thing. :)

I started working on final edits last night and let me tell you... Lauren rocked it! She caught things and suggested changes that my crazy mind did not think of or skipped over. I even had to look up a few grammar rules, because I had completely forgotten what a 'colloquialism' was?!

For those of you who do not know either...

col·lo·qui·al·ism kəˈlōkwēəˌlizəm/nounnoun: colloquialism; plural noun: colloquialisms

1. a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation.
   • the use of ordinary or familiar words or phrases.

(This is from my google search) ;)



But Lauren was busting out the big guns, throwing words like colloquialism around. ;) But that is one of the reasons I asked her to edit my manuscript.

I froze last night in complete joy and even held up page 40 of my manuscript to my husband, Brad, and said, "Babe! I finally have a page with no red on it!" haha. Yes... every page before that had something written on it, and every page after it so far... I'm now on chapter 5 and have yet to find another page where I didn't make some sort of mistake. But you know what? That's okay. I'm human. And that's why there are people like Lauren to make my writing one notch better... or maybe ten notches...

She also pointed out my love for ellipses... (these ...) I love those three little dots. She noticed. I'm sure everyone that has read my book has noticed as well. Needless to say, I made a few changes so that they are not everywhere. :) Though I still love them...

I plan to have my final edits wrapped up this week. Then on to the next phase, which will be cover design and layout. Yes, I have my front cover already designed by my awesome sister, Kerry. But I also need a back cover. And not only that, we have to format it to a certain grid and measurement in order for it to print properly. That will be the next phase. And I will be sure to show you guys what that sort of looks like as I go, and explain that process as well. It's actually one of my favorite tasks when putting a book together.

Until then, have a great week!

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