I did read The Truth About Truman from start to finish (no interruptions) yesterday. I just barely made it before I had to go and get Junior High Kid after school. And since this is my last chance to really get in there and rewrite, I want to rewrite EVERYTHING! But that would probably make my editor crazy.
The thing I kept noting again and again was EMOTION. How does so-and-so FEEL here? There are so many places I just wrote the dialog without developing the scene (especially the emotion of the scene). I also noticed the first 50 pages or so could be tightened up (looks like my editor did some cutting there anyway). And there are some character epiphanies that need work toward the end. But I can do this…I can fix it. And I’ve got specific editorial notes from a couple of different editors to work with, too. That’ll help keep me focused.
There was one section I came to that just stopped in the middle of a sentence. What??? How did that happen? (My editor noted that, too.) I checked my laptop file and discovered the sentence continued THERE, but it just stops in the file on my desktop computer. I started comparing the two files (the desktop and the laptop versions) a little closer and discovered they were similar, but not exactly the same. Oh, no! Did I send my editor the wrong version? As I read the two versions side by side I saw lots of little differences…but I honestly don’t know which file was supposed to be the “latest” version. The differences aren’t big enough to be able to tell that for sure (which was how I knew it was time to send the manuscript off last time). I guess if I can’t tell, it doesn’t matter. So I’ll stick with the one I sent to my editor, whether that was the one I MEANT to send her or not. Sigh…that’s what happens when you work on more than one computer!
I did that once. Since then, I mark the title of each file with the date.
Hey, that’s a good idea! Thanks! 🙂