Alliance of Independent Authors I'm an Ethical Author Small

Click on the pictureS to get the Nephilim Quest books with a discounted price
when you buy  direct from me, the author.

AMMO ad Lady With Bowl
NQ 1 Shadowhunter cover
Moon daughter
NQ3 Amarna Cover
NQ4 cover

THE JOYS OF EDITING

nephilim quest 3 / amarna almost there

IWSG monthly blog post.

Ah... The joys of editing... 

When I wrote Nephilim Quest 3 / Amarna, I had planned the story beforehand. I had to. With a 9 to 5 job I had to plan both my writing hours and the plot carefully so that the actual writing process would be as effective as bossible.

This time the characters behaved, and there was only one surprise trip abroad by one of the protagonists. That trip will be essential to the future plot, so I let her travel. There is a big surprise at the end of the book, even if I say so myself. I was quite happy how I had managed to keep the secret so long - even my editor had no idea what was coming. 

And then began the editing. I am reading the story through for the sixth time. 150.000 words times six... Polishing, adding, deleting. Fixing mistakes. Like making a person arrive twice to a location. Or a gagged person being able to speak before the gag is removed (and this was only noticed on the fifth read-through). You know. 

Those mistakes are something the writer can become quite blind to, and the reason it is good to let the first draft rest for a while before reading it through. And also the reason an editor and a proofreader are a must.

I still need to polish some parts where I fall for my old vice of lecturing about ancient Egypt. This is a story after all, not a non-fiction Egyptology book. Still, I want my details to be as accurate as possible when it comes to ancient Egypt. There are some uncertainties I had to invent an answer to. Who was Tutankhamen's mother? No one really knows. To whom in the royal family was Nefertiti related to? No one really knows. Did she rule as an equal alongside Akhenaten? No one can tell for certain. Was there a joint reign of Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten? There are theories favouring both options. So much knowledge is lost - and yet there is the tantalising possibility that time will reveal new snippets of information of these ancient times.

But anyway, I am writing this in November 2018. Soon the people who have signed up to my reader group will receive their free copy. I ask them to read the book and then when the official publishing date comes, to give an honest review.

I'll be letting you know soon the publication date of Nephilim Quest 3 / Amarna.


Are you a writer? How much do you edit your story?

Do you have a great story about this? Share it!

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Comment 
That's a lot of words. Fortunately on the stuff that we don't know for certain, you get a little creative license and can just use your imagination.

Click here to write your own.



Click on the Leenasbooks Newsletter headline above  to go to the newsletter blog's first page on Substack to see what it is about.

You can read the past posts there, and check if you are interested in listening to the audio chapters of my published books, or follow my stories as I write them.

Upon subscribing you will get the Prequel to Nephilim Quest: Angel.

Over two hundred years before Nephilim Quest 1 / Shadowhunter the roots of the story are planted.

A little girl missing her mother, in the palace of the mightiest of the dark Nephilim, hoping for an escape ...  

This book is not for sale anywhere - only readers who have subscribed to my mailing list will get it.



If you want to read more IWSG posts, you'll find them here.

Back to Homepage

Back to Blog Main page

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.
Alliance of Independent Authors /
Alliance of Independent Authors /