ARE YOU EVER DONE EDITING?

Here's the thing about today's post--Are you ever done editing? -- I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the answer is a resounding NO.

It was with great pleasure that I sent off what I thought was a final submission manuscript for THE DEVIL'S DUE. I'd been working on read-throughs, critiques and edits with an author friend so it had to be ready. In turn, I do the same for his manuscripts when he asks me to.

Well, we went through THE DEVIL'S DUE with what we thought was the proverbial "fine tooth comb", but I guess there were gaps in the teeth, because after the manuscript was on it's way, my friend decided to skate through the first few chapters again. Maybe it was for old times sake. Or, maybe to see what a great job we'd done by finding glitches and errors and fixing them before submission.

Instead, he found more things that we missed. One thing led to another, and before you knew it we were making our way through the manuscript again, with changes or corrections in almost every chapter. Well, since he really liked the story and didn't mind going through it again, it was sort of fun. This time we were really careful. We were going to catch every errant comma, every typographical transposition, and anything else that dared slip past our astute eyes the first time. There. It was done! I resubmitted the manuscript to my publisher, confident that every single thing had been ferreted out.

But no--now my friend was suffering withdrawal symptoms. He needed to look for commas. He missed the story. Begin round three. It was bound to be boring, because there was nothing left to find--or was there?

You guessed it. Things we'd sailed right past now were painfully obvious. We've become THE DEVIL'S DUE junkies, making our way through it for the third time--needing our fix for the day. Gotta find commas--don't care if they're ones that are missing or ones that shouldn't be there. Quick, I need to find a glitch in the timeline. Can't find any. Oh no. Are timeline faux pax off the radar now? Okay, give me a reference that could be clearer, right name in the wrong place. Anything. As my friend e-mailed me recently, "Gotta...edit."

Seriously, this manuscript has reinforced the already proven concept that many times our eyes read what we think we see, not what is actually there. That's how those pesky errors might sneak past us. One readthrough is not enough, two might do it, but three are better, I guess. However, when three is complete, the rest will be left to my publisher's editor. That is unless my friend needs another fix of THE DEVIL'S DUE.

--ARLISS ADAMS

SHAME ON ME - ABOUT COMMITMENTS

Well, I made a commitment to myself to post on this blog almost every day, and I blew it! Here it is the 21st, and I haven't posted anything since the 16th. Yeah, I know, things come up, other priorities, but it would be far too easy to say that and get away with it.

I have the time to read e-mails...some of them total spam; I have the time to find inconsequential things to do. So why couldn't I find the time to post for the past four days? No excuse, ma'am. I'm guilty and will try to be better in the future.

Yesterday I got the "go" signal from L&L Dreamspell for the second book, THE DEVIL'S DUE, and signed the contract. Now it's a reality. In some ways, it's sad, though. The end of something I've lived with for over fourteen years. There was always that manuscript to edit, changes to be made, errors to be discovered. From this point on, there will be a few go-arounds of the publisher's edits, reviewing the galley, and then...and then...holding both books in my hand.

Hmmm, if I had to choose between a never-ending round of rewriting and holding those books, it would be a no-brainer. Holding the books, of course. It means I can go on to other projects, knowing that I've learned so very much from the journey I started with a first-time fiction novel entitled "Dance Ballerina Dance" to the polished end result. Most of the versions exist somewhere in the stacks, file drawers, floor, and other receptacles in my office, and with each one there is a new element. A new title, a new character, a new understanding of Jen's voice, a new cruel twist...it's all there on floppy disks, CD's and DVD's. A history of how I learned to write fiction.

Along with that memory, are all of the people who had a hand in it along the way. On-line groups, conferences, writer's groups, author friends, reader friends, family...they're all there in the history of the books.

I was going to write more about how the story evolved today, but went off on a tangent again, so I guess that will be reserved for tomorrow. Today I'm just going to take the time to appreciate everyone who helped me achieve the dream of telling the story...sharing it and hopefully pulling at readers' heartstrings and their joy...their sense of protectiveness and their anger. Those are the emotions swirling around in this work. Sometimes I would be sitting at the computer crying as I wrote, because I'd gotten so into the character. When people reading the manuscript tell me they cried, too, I know I accomplished what I was aiming for.

More tomorrow, I promise.

--ARLISS ADAMS