"Dead"line

Now I understand what people mean when they talk about their "deadline". I just recently experienced this firsthand. I got my developmental editors notes about my novel and I was to go through the manuscript, add, subtract, review, accept or reject her ideas.

No big deal right?

Wrong!

Looking back, it's actually kind of funny. You'd think, as the author, I would know every little detail about the novel and be able to fly through the edits. Well, not exactly. It takes time and patience to go through line by line and not skim. Making sure there was the correct "they're" and not "their" or "too" instead of "to" or knowing which "he" I meant when I said "he said" and there are three "hes" in the dialogue. Even though grammatical editing took care of most of this, everyone is human and not everyone can see everything. My editor is a wonderful person, she was available by phone or email if I needed any help and was a guide through this process.

I had two weeks to review my manuscript and add the parts my editor suggested I add in order to make certain loose ends tied up. I have to admit that the novel was more concise and compact by the end. Getting there was the adventure.

Due to all my editor's notes, and the l 1/2 line spacing the novel was 500+ pages. I started out working everyday excited to get through it. Then my energy lagged. I took a couple days off and didn't work. My deadline was Friday. Thursday came around and I realized I still had 200+ pages to review, not to mention the additions I had to do. I started around noon thinking it wouldn't take too long......

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2:00am

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Finally I was done without any major breaks for lunch or dinner.

So it was finished. Now I know what they mean by calling it a "dead"line. After you reach it you are completely "dead" tired.

I learned from this experience and will never again put it off. :-)