The Editing Process

 

Every author goes through the fear and terror of working with an editor.

 

Sometimes it feels good to see pages of your words without a single correction. comment, or suggested change. But that doesn’t happen often.

My wife, Grace, does my editing.

My writing is better for it. We’re still married. All is well.

What amazes us both, however, are the simple mistakes that neither of us noticed until checking and double-checking right at the end of the process.

For example, I had written a fine opening sentence to one chapter, where the main characters take a well earned break one evening “in the garden of a pub.” Except, of course, that is not actually what I wrote. I had written–and read many times over–the phrase “in the garden of pub.”

The human brain is a wonderful thing, but how can it mislead us so?