Revisions & polishing done

I’ve completed my final polishing of The Captive Girl. It’s an enjoyable, if slow process; took eight days. I read the text slowly, savoring each phrase and sentence. I’m looking for inappropriate words; ones that miss what I’m aiming for, or ones that are too bland, or ones that are redundant. An author will use a word they particularly like and then, without thinking, use it again in the same paragraph or the next one. A careful reading will expose this mistake. I’m also looking for words or phrases that jar me, either by not ringing true to the moment in the story or because they are words that are out of character in a dialogue.

Each time I find something, I take the time to figure out the right solution. Often it’s just replacing a word (the online thesaurus gets a lot of use!); sometimes I have to reconstruct the sentence to get where I want to go.

There is a lot of satisfaction involved. First, the hard work is done. The story is down and fixed. This is the final polishing before I present it to the public. It’s a bit like doing a finish sanding on a project with 1,000 grit paper; or a final detailing on a car before it goes in a show.

So I’ll be publishing on Nov. 11. The ebook will come first. The cover for the paperback is still being finished, so that will follow a few days later…for you paperback fans.

You can still pre-order the ebook for only $.99. It’s worth a go, even if you want the paperback as well. You can find it here.