Buenas tardes desde la soleada España!

I'm still in editing mode for my middle grade (8-12 year old) adventure novel set partly in the Minecraft universe. I have a solid plan now thanks to Jessica Brody's revision course which is part of her Write Mastery Membership. So now it's just a case of going through each chapter and making the changes.

Of course, that’s not as easy as it sounds! I started by re-reading the manuscript out loud - I’ve found it’s a great way to check the pacing and dialogue - and making notes about things I wanted to change for the plot, scenes or characters.

It was so tempting to make individual line edits, changing spelling and grammar mistakes, so instead of making the notes on-screen I printed off the whole book and wrote them directly onto each page. Less tempting, yes. Quick, no. But as I’m self-publishing the only real deadline is the one I’m setting for myself.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram or Threads you’ll know that I’m using Notion as my second brain these days, and I've listed all the changes that need to be made by chapter in a Notion database. That way I get the satisfaction of ticking off each one of the sixty or so changes as I work through them. Some are simple tweaks, others are plot holes that need some major filling or back story elements I want to add to build depth to the characters.

I'm in Spain at the moment, as you probably guessed, enjoying some family time and sunshine before the inevitable British winter. (I’ve added a few photos below. And yes the blue really is that blue!) Consequently, I’m a bit behind on my original plan - although I’m happily making a dent in my to-be-read pile yay - and I'm now hoping to get everything done by the end of November so I can send the edited manuscript off to my lovely beta readers * crosses fingers *

But even though I'm deep in the editing weeds I couldn't resist making some images visuals to help me focus and visualise some exciting parts of the story. Here's a sneak peek of my mood board - let me know what you think in the comments!

Until next time friends,

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