The drudgery and value of proofreading and editing.

Ugh, the process of proofreading can be grueling! Now, every writer likes to hear themselves ‘talk’ so to speak, and they often enjoy their own writing; we’re sort of egotistical that way… But heavens, reading and rereading your own writing over and over again… Blargh!!! It’s hard to edit yourself. It’s not the whole cutting and changing part (although I do know a few writers who really need to learn to let go of blathery bits), it’s hard to see the errors and inconsistencies in narrative that came out of your own brain. It’s like your brain just would skim right over an error that is so blatant, it would reach out and punch someone else in the head.

But I am doggedly marching on. My cover change process for Tinna’s Promise is well underway, and you will probably see the new cover on the book within the next month or so (Amazon takes a little longer to make those changes), but nonetheless, the newer, professional cover is submitted and polished. YAY! I love the new Tinnas. They’re beautiful. The Tinna’s Might cover is also being assembled; made to both match the first and to reflect the changes that have occurred since the events in the first novel.

I’m excited. I haven’t been this keyed up about my books in a while!

Above is a concept image drawn by a friend of mine. We both run a local writing group in our neighborhood, and she does reviews. I actually met her when I submitted Tinna's Promise for review and the mailing address was only down the mountain a bit from me. She is a busy lady, and has lots of hobbies, including drawing... She's been helping me a lot with my books and website, and I've helped her with some editing and proofreading.

I think having writing friends is crucial. They can act as inspiration and as support systems; but most importantly, as the all-important reality checkers. To all independent authors, I recommend you find a writing group, or some kindred spirits to hang with. It's amazing how they can help you get over writing blocks with random suggestions, and really give a boost to your competitive nature and get you writing!

Both my friend and I are great advocates for EDITING. We see a lot of independently published books that are insulting to the readers... POD books are expensive, and some authors have the audacity to ask readers to pay more for low-quality writing and badly composed concepts. No no no! So proofreading is the first step for me. After that, it's off to a book editor who will pick apart my grammar, my storyline, time line, character consistencies and more... this is so important. Tinna's Promise was professionally edited by Dorrie O'Brien, who did a phenomenal job.