So far, bang on schedule – I’ve just finished revisions four and five. R4 involved Shiona reading the entire book aloud from her Kindle with me following along on the laptop. It’s very slow work (about ten pages a day) but it’s amazing how many clunky pieces of text, plotlines that don’t work too well and other imperfections we were able to iron out.
For R5, the manuscript has been down to Edinburgh visiting my cousin, Joyce, who’s just finished reading it for the first time. She’s given me 35 pages of feedback comments so now I have to mesh them all into the narrative.
At the same time I’ll be working through some fine-detail checks to give it yet another coat of polish. For example, I’ve been using too many unnecessary commas so I need to sort that out. As a matter of interest when this was brought to my attention (thank you, Chris – he said through gritted teeth) there were over 5800 commas. Now there are 4650 and I think that number might reduce a bit further.
As things stand I expect to finish by late August, which will mean I can begin submitting to literary agencies – probably September / October time. Look out for more updates.
All the best everybody, and take care.
Harry