Editing: Butt in and out of chair

This is just a fly-by post, me keeping my promise to myself that I WILL blog at the start(-ish) and middle of each month. So far, so good.

I’m time-poor right now because I’m chunking my way through the final nuts-and-bolts edits of my book, The Colours of the Dead.

I’ve done dedicated pass-throughs for setting, the weather, the senses, and to double-check all the bits of research I’m a bit wobbly on.

I’ve scoured my manuscript with an eye to examining characterisation and subplots, backstory and exposition and genre.

I’m in the midst of doing a pass-through to tighten up dialogue. After that will come a hardcore line edit … and then, I think, I will be done.

As much as a writer can ever say they’re done.

To stop all this butt-in-chair business from causing muscle atrophy – not to mention from making me lose my ever-loving mind – I’ve been getting outdoors to exercise. Even though it’s winter. Even though it’s flipping freezing. But it’s head-clearing. And as you can see, the views are beautiful:

Do you see those small brown dots on the grass in the background? Just a couple of our friendly neighbourhood kangaroos!

Home for me is the Adelaide foothills, meaning that on a good day I’m only a twenty minute drive from the city centre, whilst still having all this beauty on my back doorstep.

How lucky am I?

Hopefully, I’ll be darn close to having a fully polished manuscript next time I post. Wish me luck!