Monday, July 27, 2009

Finished!

I've finished my edits and revisions for the Undone* story I wrote, THE WELSH LORD'S MISTRESS (October, 2009). It's the first time I've ever edited on the computer, so that meant a steep learning curve in terms of figuring out how to add comments, put my name into the program so it would show up on the comments, etc.

Now, I am the first to say I consider my computer to be, basically, a glorified typewriter. The most innovative feature for me, to this point, has been the cut and paste function, meaning I can move material without having to input it all again. Since I'm big on revising, this is no small thing.

Otherwise, I tend to resist using all the bells and whistles available. Not only am I rather resistant to any change unless I see a really good reason for it or have it forced upon me, I've never actually been taught or shown what all the bells and whistles are and how to use them. It's pretty much trial, error and asking other, more savvy users than I, how to do something.

Which is what happened when I had to edit on the computer for the first time. I wound up consulting Daughter and Hubby and noodling around on my own. Once I did get it figured out though....

Cue the angelic choir, because oh, baby, I could totally get into this!

With one major caveat: since I tend to make a lot of changes and changes to changes, all the colors and struck-out bits could get hard to read, so I wound up making a hard copy after all and I decided to do an extra edition to make sure everything was clear. But until that point and once I had a clue what I was doing? It was actually kinda...fun.

But don't tell my editor I said so!



*ETA - I'm having trouble with this link. If you just get to the Harlequin site, click on Harlequin and you'll find a link to Harlequin Historical Undone.

1 comment:

Kimber Chin said...

I LOVE computer edits, especially once we get to the nitpicky line edit stage (then it is usually do I accept or reject the suggestions).

But seriously, I ALWAYS print off the final version and have a read through. It is like looking at the manuscript with fresh eyes.