Wednesday, March 16, 2011

10 Things I Learned While Editing This Novel

1. My agent is brilliant. I really should pay attention to her the first time around.

2. My editor is also brilliant, mostly because she never uses the word “suckage". Even if it’s what she means.

3. I obviously like funerals--I have one in every book. In THE UNQUIET I have 3.

Note: my grandmother routinely attended funerals (weddings, too) of people she never met. I used to think it was for the food. Now I believe she simply had a morbid interest in the whole process.

4. It doesn’t matter if I’ve re-read, re-written, and re-revised 10 times--I'm still gonna screw up. I don’t know what the magic number is. I doubt I’ll ever find out.

5. There is no such thing as “Are you outta your SKULL? I can’t cut that!

6. God invented vacation and sick days specifically for writers on a deadline.

7. Even in my so-called “final” draft, my daughter can always point out something stupid I wrote.

8. I am still the Typo QUEEN of the 21st Century. That'll never change. Bow to me, peasants.

9. I’d forgotten how exciting a new book could be. :) :) :)

10. This laptop ain’t gonna hold out much longer.

No comments: