Making Corrections

The proofreading is done! At last.

Now I'm making corrections to my file, based on the proofreading I did. However, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. Since my file is already formatted the way I want, I can change the whole look of it simply by adding or removing a single word. This can be a problem if it means a paragraph is broken awkwardly or the page count changes. I've had several instances where I changed one word and then had to go change several other sentences just to make things line up again. Oddly enough, the forced changes occasionally made the phrasing better than the original! It's funny how that works.

For example, I had a sentence that read this way: "Your altitude is good," Hawkins said, his eyes glued to the controls.
I never liked that part about "eyes glued to the controls" because it's a cliché and why is he looking at the controls anyway?
I changed the sentence to read this way: "Your altitude is good," Hawkins, said, keeping his eyes on the instruments.
Doesn't that seem better? That also meant that a two-line sentence farther down appeared on the same page, rather than being broken up between two pages.
Little adjustments like that are what make this a slow process, but it will make the finished product much better. (It makes me cringe to think of my novel as a "product," but that's ultimately what it will be.)

Once I get the corrections made to the file, I'm going to double-check all aspects of the formatting. While I'm doing that, I'm going to create a notebook of the various format settings so I'll be ready when it comes time to format the third novel. (Yes, there will be a third!) That should save me some time in the future.

So I'm making progress. Remember to tell all your friends about Outsider so they can get it read before the sequel is published!