Category: Behind The Curtain

The manuscript for Chet III was returned from my editor last night. Now starts the most dreaded and difficult part of writing my novel. At least as long as I exclude persistent writer’s block.

I open the document, and not wanting to risk the loss of both eyes, I crack one eyelid just enough to let in a glimmer of light. In the self imposed twilight, I gingerly scan the pages. From page one, all the way to page three hundred and fifty four, it looks like someone spilled an ocean of blue ink. It has washed across the regimented lines of black and white text, at times obliterating entire paragraphs, in other places snuffing out dozens of lines of dialogue.

As bad as it seems, I stoically remind myself that it could be worse. In the days before electronic processing of manuscripts, my editor would have used a red pencil or pen to do the markups. With a shudder, I envision the same corrections emblazoned in blood red, and I send forth a silent prayer of gratitude that at least I normally like the color of blue.

All hyperbole aside, it is incredibly difficult to pour your time and effort, not to mention some portion of your very essence, into a story and to have it so thoroughly sliced and diced. Intellectually, I know it’s being done in an effort to make the presentation better, especially the technical aspects, but sometimes it’s hard to get my heart to recognize and appreciate the intent.

As I take a deep breath and prepare to spend the next week or so burrowed into my book, making needed corrections and agonizing over what goes and what stays, there is one bright spot I’m going to try desperately to hang onto. At the top of this particular manuscript is a personal note from my editor.

She wrote. ‘I love starting one of your manuscripts. It’s like settling in for a chat with an old friend.’

In all candor, I appreciate my editor more than I can possibly express. I know she is trying to make the finished book the best it can possibly be. That being ever so cautiously admitted, if something she loves comes back looking like this, I’d hate to be the one that sends her something she dislikes.

I’ll see you on the other side …

It’s hard to believe it has only been a week since I announced I was starting Chet zero. After the struggle I’ve had with writing for the first two weeks of this new year, I figured it was going to take some serious time to complete even a novella length story. In spite of my low expectations, I’m delighted to let you know that I’ve completed the manuscript for the Chet prequel.

I was writing along yesterday afternoon when I reached the end of a chapter and suddenly realized I’d finished telling the story. There were some other tidbits that I’d outlined, but given the way the story evolved they felt superfluous. Not willing to trust my judgment, especially when avoiding work is part of the consideration, I gave the story to my wife to read. She buried her head in the computer while I went off to do some manual labor to keep myself from pacing back and forth behind her chair while she read.

During one of the times I cautiously poked my head into the office, she sighed, smiled, and told me it was a good little story. With my sweetheart’s stamp of approval, the manuscript is officially off to cool its heels for a few weeks.

By way of explanation, I learned my production process from a much younger and more mentally agile author. He assured me a manuscript needs to set for a few weeks so I’ll be able to forget enough that I’m seeing it fresh when I do my initial editing pass. I just didn’t have the heart to tell my son that all it takes is one night and I’ve forgotten pretty much everything. Since I’m all about keeping up pretenses, I’ll dutifully wait for the next three weeks or so and then I’ll do my initial editing pass. If everything goes as well as I hope, I’ll release Chet zero in close proximity to the release of Chet III.

Until next time …