SUMMARY OF EDITS FOR CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Chapter Seventeen extracted very little lead from my editor’s pencil. Her observations are summarised below.

·           A small arrow to indicate that the start of the first paragraph for a new chapter or section should always be against the left hand margin.
·           Two commas which shouldn’t have been there.
·           A missing question mark.
·           A missing letter on the end of one word.
·           One paragraph of information already revealed earlier in the story.
·           A big tick and the comment ‘Nice’ against one of the scenes.

On the surface it seemed that this chapter wasn’t going to require too much work. However, that’s where an author needs to be careful. Just because the editor hasn’t covered the MS with graphite doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. When I re-read this chapter I came up with dozens of little tweaks I could apply. These included:

·           Changing some words for a more descriptive form.
·           Adding more physical signposts to some of the dialogue.
·           Adding extra description where necessary.
·           Extending one scene to provide a smoother transition to the next.

Whilst I’m happy with this material at the moment there might still be room for further improvement. The best way to see where further changes need to be made is not to look at it for a few weeks. Coming back with fresh eyes is by far the best bit of advice I have read on the subject.




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