To Writers:
It has been three years since my last Blog. Between writing five books in that period and other personal interests, I have had ample excuses to put it off. The truth is that I find it weird to write and send it off to no one in particular, So I will attempt again and hope to be more consistent.
I would love to hear back from readers and other writers and start a conversation. To writers, where are you with the process? Writing every day? First book? What have you found to be the most challenging part? For me, the part I hate is the proofing. As I write the story, I stop at about every twenty thousand words and go back over the work to see how it reads. By the end of the story, not only have I written the story, but I have read it about four times. Then, I leave it to sit a few days and give it one more complete read-through before sending it to four proofreaders. I am dyslexic, so I know there will still have many mistakes. One paid professional for the grammar and three others who I highly respected for their talents.
As each manuscript returns, I go through the book line by line, making the suggested changes. I am amazed that after all this, I will find mistakes they all missed and so many of each other’s mistakes they missed. I go through line by line because I do not accept all the suggested changes, especially in dialog. Most of my characters speak like most working people. I would like to hear from you with what you think.