The Final Editing Stage...Walk Away

Okay, I have done the major rewrite on my upcoming novel due in to the editor.


But now I am tired. Worn out. My fingers are frazzled, and my mind is numb after all the rewriting. I am thoroughly sick and tired of the book. So what do I do?



Let it rest and walk away. Literally.


Yes, I took a week off, walked away from my computer and went into the woods to enjoy a bit of the coming spring. I went hiking for a week.

I enjoyed blooming redbud and the dogwood. And allowed some refreshing times to enter my weary soul. Afterwards, I returned to the book that had been sitting patiently in my computer, awaiting my attention. I read it as though I had not seen it before. And I was able to detect the flow of the writing better. To see small mistakes that would have likely been overlooked, having stared at the document for so long. And put the finishing touches on a manuscript to ready it for the editor.


So what to do on that last stage of editing? Walk away. Take a rest. Then come back and have a new look at it. In the end you will have a final product that gleams.