‘Tis the Season For a Manuscript Folly

I finished my final edit of Unison and felt relieved that this part of my journey was finally over. I started the screenplay version in October 2010 and began work on the novel in December of the same year. It still amazes me that what began as a two-character crucible evolved into a full-blown epic.

My previous edit was supposed to be the last, but on the night I uploaded it to Create Space, my husband took issue with the size of New Athenia, one of my cities in the story. He insisted it was too large. I went to Google Maps and realized he was correct and was glad he caught it. It would’ve been embarrassing to have a city that was too big for the land it was built upon!  After I made the necessary corrections, I contacted Create Space. It was after business hours,  but I wanted to catch the file before it went to the project team. The clerk who answered told me since my manuscript hadn’t been looked at yet, I could call back the next day and tell them I want to upload a new version. It turned out he gave me the wrong  information, and I had to wait for the layout to be completed.

I viewed the delay as happening for a reason, and sure enough it did. While waiting to reject the proof, I found a few spots in my book that had room for more tweaking. One entailed closing up a minor thread, and the other dealt with strengthening the emotional response of the protagonist in the first act. Neither was necessary but added more depth and gave me a deeper sense of completion. The way I closed the thread also opened up a new possibility for the next book in the series.

By the time I finished going over the new text, I knew I was finally finished. I next went to work on the blurb and then headed to Starbucks with my daughters to use the internet. Our service will be down until the 30th. The pace here in Hawaii tends to be a little slow. It’s one of the cons about living here. Nevertheless, the environment more than makes up for the minor inconveniences. Additionally, I have no trouble working in a noisy atmosphere, and I like doing so. I feel more engaged in my writing when I’m around people and consider myself an extroverted introvert in this regard. I do a lot of my writing at Starbucks and other locations where I cart my daughters for extra-curricular activities. When you have young kids, you either adjust to their schedule or wait until they’re grown up to write.  I didn’t want to wait that long.

After I got my cup of Christmas blend and fired up my Macbook, I went through my blurb again and didn’t like how one of the sentences flowed. I worked on it until I got annoyed enough to take a break. Why is it always one sentence? I decided to upload my manuscript…only after I selected the file, I pressed, “submit” before uploading. On Create Space if you do that, it takes you to a page that thanks you for uploading your file…even if you didn’t. I must’ve expressed my stupidity louder than my girls were talking  as a customer walked over and asked if he could help me in any way. After I explained my situation, he said, “Everything will be all right.” We wished each other a Merry Christmas, and he returned to reading his newspaper. Incredible. My mother would’ve said the same thing if she were with me.

Once again, I took my blunder as a sign that I had more work to do on my blurb.  I continued working on it until the end of the night and went to bed thinking I finished. When I hit Starbucks the next day, I decided I still didn’t like the blurb and worked on it some more. I finally got the offending sentence to flow and fixed the blurb on my book cover. I had no problems uploading my manuscript, but I found a typo in my blurb. Since I started playing editor, I’ve become more sensitive to the unreliability of the human brain. I read through the blurb four more times—twice backwards. Only then did I have the courage to upload. So now, as I type this, I’m finished. Christmas turned  out to be a relaxing day for me because I earned it.  We hit an Indian restaurant for an all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner. The food was great, but the price…not so much.  But at least my book is finally finished. Right?

I went to the library last night for movie night. They were playing Madagascar 2, and my girls wanted to see it. While they were watching,  I checked my email. I received an update from CreateSpace, telling me if I want another image in my book, I have to pay extra. The thing is, I didn’t put in any extra images. I looked at the file I uploaded and noticed an empty image box with a question mark in the middle. It was a glitch that happened when I saved my Mac Pages file as a Word Doc.  Each time I tried to re-save, the same thing happened, and I couldn’t figure out why. After I scrolled through the whole file, I found no other empty image boxes and re-uploaded my manuscript. I felt uneasy and looked through it again when I got home and found no errors. Hopefully, things will turn out all right. At least this mistake wasn’t of my own doing. The only thing I have to say now is, “Phew! I’m finally finished.” I have a feeling 2013 will be my lucky year as it will be the year where my first book will be published.

Have a safe and happy New Year.

Love and light,

Eleni