Yippie

I know I’ve been agonizing about editing, but I’m done. Jeremiah Stone edits are complete and so I’m going to stop bitching now (mostly). I still hate the fact I have to edit, but the book is better for it, so I’m happy.

Now on to bigger things… Um, maybe.

Though Jeremiah Stone is done, my next task is to edit Beginnings: A Jeremiah Stone Novel. I’m not looking forward to it because I just reread/edited it recently, but I have to do a once over again to be sure. I do, however, like the new editing process in which I do edits on the computer then print it off for a full read through with a highlighter. I find it’s easy to just mark sections and then go into the computer to fix things later, which gives me another chance to read through the markup and decide if the change really needs to be made. I find this method works well because sometimes some things I might have changed remain the same as I read them once again. The other nice thing is Beginnings is written almost strictly from Jeremiah Stone’s perspective and it’s shorter, just over 60,000 words.

And for a taste of a simple change in Jeremiah Stone, here’s the intro (which I hope clears things up a bit for those of you who’ve already read the story):

“Did Job not satisfy your curiosity?” God asked.

“The world is a different place now, with different motivations, thereby I propose a different test,” the Devil answered.

“And what shall it be this time?”

“Instead of taking away a man’s livelihood to affect his faith, I propose we affect a newborn soul. Each of us may give or take one thing from the soul and see which gift sways the soul the most toward either good or evil.”

“Agreed,” God replied.

“What shall your gift be?” the Devil asked.

“Belief,” God responded. “If the soul believes strongly enough then I give it the power to accomplish whatever it desires. And your gift?”

“I don’t give, I take,” the Devil replied. “So I’ll remove his morals.”

“So the soul will know right from wrong, yet doesn’t need to follow either and holds no remorse. Clever,” God nodded. “And if the burdens we provide do not sway the soul’s intent?”

“Then we burden the soul with knowledge,” the Devil responded.