Copy-Editing Day 2

I got two more chapters copy-edited yesterday.
Copy editing is just about the dullest, most gruelling, most painful part of the writing process. It's also entirely crucial. Even if you only have one error on every three pages that's one more error than a manuscript submitted to an agent should have.

It seems a universal piece of advice from agents and publishers alike that once somebody stops editing for content and starts copy editing you may as well forget the content getting edited at all.

And so it falls to the author to take a break from the fun parts of writing to slowly scan page after page of text, not to actually read in any cohesive way but just to search for typos, poor word choices and bad grammar.

The good news is that I am averaging 2 chapters a day. That means I should be finished editing all twenty chapters well before the end of the month.

By then I hope to have had a few of my wonderful, awesome, crucial beta readers give me feedback and I can start on draft 2.

Well... actually that's not true... I've already started on draft 2. I started when I wrote the insert text for the primary that I sort of dropped. But what I mean is that I can get really started on draft 2.

I picked up the most recent issue of The Writer today. If you are trying to start a career as an author I can not stress enough what a good resource this magazine is. Seriously, I have learned quite a lot since I started buying this magazine four issues ago. I haven't had a chance to read this issue yet so no highlights.