Saturday, August 27, 2011

Going Dark While Revising

To my wonderful blog readers who I truly appreciate more than words can say. Thanks for reading and supporting. Thanks for commenting and giving me inspiration. Thanks for being there for me. I love my little blog because of you guys and this is just a heartfelt post to let you all know how much y'all mean to me. Especially during a time where I can't always comment back or visit the blogosphere like I used to. Cause I admit it - I just can't keep up with everything going on in life anymore. And it doesn't help that I seem to be getting more absent-minded with age. So I'm going to have to let the little blog go dark for at least one month in order to really do the best that I can on my revisions.

Yes - revisions. I admit to being scared when I got my editorial notes on Prophecy. They looked incredibly intimidating. They reminded me of this:


I admit to leaving it on my desk and circling it warily for a week, too afraid to even touch it. Silly me. When I finally began to read through it, it really dawned on me why a good editor is so important to the publication of a book. Her comments, her questions, her notes were brilliant. She wasn't telling me how to rewrite my book, she was showing me how to make it stronger, tighter, better. Pacing, the bane of my existence, is now something I understand how to correct. I can see so much clearer now. I feel like dropping to my knees and bowing before her chanting "I'm not worthy."

Before I got my notes, I knew my editor was good because my agent told me she was good. But now I know just how brilliant she is from what is now going to be an amazing learning experience for me. And I'm ready. I'm excited. I'm also still scared cause the one thing it isn't going to be is easy. Everytime I see the word tighten scribbled on the side of a page, that's exactly what my chest does. When a word choice is questioned, I agonize over what would be a better one. The word "anachronistic" sends me into a  panic. My mind is consumed by the revision process. And it is going to be great for my book. But that means I'm going to have to be more focused than before and make a sacrifice. As hard as it is, even at my now limited blogging level, I'm going to have to stop blogging for a little while. I hope that when I come back, I can share with you what I learned and how I've grown. So please don't forget me while I'm gone.

Like the Terminator, I'll be back.


9 comments:

laughingwolf said...

good luck, el :)

Christina Farley said...

Wow! This is so exciting! I hope your revisions go well!

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Thanks guys!

H said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heather Zundel said...

We'll be here when you get back. :)

Travis Erwin said...

Hope the revisions are going well.

moonrat said...

now THAT's the kind of thing an editor likes to hear :)

Charles Gramlich said...

I'm glad to hear it. Sounds like you two are sympatico.

Kathy Bradey said...

Good luck! What a challenge :) Hoping it all goes well.

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