I don't know why, but I always forget how much work copy edits are. It's like I develop amnesia or something. When I receive them, it goes something like this. Wow, 2 weeks, I should be able to get these done in a week and mail them back early. So because there's so much time, I don't rush through my first read through where I handle the easy copy editor questions. At some point while I'm plowing my way through the manuscript, it begins to occur to me that it's taking longer than I thought.
It's okay, I reassure myself. The second pass will be faster. There's only a few changes I made in the electronic copy that I need to input. I should be able to get this done in one night. This is when it dawns on me that I've greatly underestimated how much time it will take. I only made it halfway through the story on this second pass.
Now it's day 2 of this pass. I suddenly realize that I don't have 8 more days like I thought, it's only 7 because I have to bundle the manuscript up to be mailed back at work the next day, which means I don't have that extra day to work on it like I thought I had. Panic begins to creep in as I measure how much I've accomplished versus how much I have left to accomplish. A clock begins ticking in my head.
This is where I was at yesterday. Luckily, day 2 on the changes I'd made to my document went faster than I anticipated and I even managed to get to bed early. That clock, though, is still running in my head and I'm trying to figure out how much time it's going to take to do everything I need to do.
So far there's been one big discrepancy that I've found. The first time Kel builds a fire, the fireplace has doors. The second time, there's a screen. I've fixed that.
On the CE To Do List still are:
Agent's suggestions
Reworking the first fight scene to add knives (I volunteered to do this for the cover)
The harder Copy Editor queries
Duplicate words
Final read through
