About those counters I have in the sidebar here: In one sense they tell you (and me) how close to completion a given project is. In another sense, they’re a lie. I am tracking, essentially, the progress of a first draft. A worthy achievement, but nowhere near actually done. My drafts go though anywhere from three to four revisions. First draft, the draft after workshopping comments, possibly a draft in response to my agent’s suggestion, and almost always a response to editorial suggestions. In the case of Lilly’s Song we went through all of these, with a double shot of the latter. (Not counting the rewrite I did in the middle when I decided to change settings.)
But I’m done with it now, right?
Well this came in the mail today:
Behold the copy-edited “final” draft of Lilly’s Song, through which I must wade in colored pencil, reviewing all the copy-editor’s changes. But once I get through this I will be done.
Until they send me the page proofs.
