Round One - The Purple Pen of Doom

That's right. Purple. Pen. Of Doom. I've been working on the first round of edits for Ride a Cock Horse. I was expecting some heavy edits the first time around, especially since my editor is (fondly) referred to as Her Editing Evilness, wielder of the Purple Pen of Doom, master of the Chicago Manual of Style.

I imagine her with purple ink dripping off her hands as she gleefully marks up your manuscript. The one in which your words painstakingly bled onto the document. Okay, technically it is track changes in purple but you get my point.

It was interesting that two of the weakest areas in my manuscript ended up being paragraphs that I knew were not up to snuff. Thankfully I have another opportunity to make them all they can be. It really pays to have more than one set of eyes to review and suggest things to make a good piece of writing into a great piece of writing.

Among the things I will remember for the next submission - look for those nasty repetitive common words! As a writer who always wants to do justice to her characters, I appreciate what an editor's job is. I had no idea really. If you asked me what to expect I would have shrugged and said I don't know. Punctuation and grammar that you miss during pre-edits is a given. However, there is much more to an editor's job. They make suggestions to make your story stronger. They bring up salient points (such as asking what you meant when you used the word 'it'). Honestly, if you have to explain what you wrote, you didn't do it right.

That is just my opinion of course but think about it. An editor looks at your book with a reader's eyes, not just with the discerning eye of a grammar expert. They deserve the thanks that every author I have read gives them in their books. Without the editor, your book can end up less than you'd hoped. And you become more than you were with everything they teach you.