Right now I’m immersed in editing A Togahan Returns, the sequel to A Togahan’s Tale. I’m sifting each chapter sentence by sentence, trying to trim up the language and make it flow better. After that, it goes to the copy editor who will find the thousand tiny things I missed. I’ll fix those, format it for one or more e-readers, and then release it sometime in 2013.
In order to make the most efficient use of limited writing time, I wrote up a schedule in Excel to keep track of my progress. I set reasonable milestones based on the time I know I’ll have available. There’s some buffer in there to account for holidays, sick days, and the unexpected delays.
When I’m behind schedule, as I am now, I’m tempted to rush through a chapter in order to catch up, but I have to resist this temptation. While I might get the satisfaction of checking off another item on a long list, I haven’t really done myself, or you my readers, any favors. The whole point of the editing process is to improve the quality of the manuscript so that my readers are not distracted by errors, and can truly immerse themselves in the story.
So the schedule might slip, and A Togahan Returns may be delayed a few weeks. But I know that when I hit those milestones, they mean something, and hopefully I’ll have entertained you with an engaging story.