In My Words: Editing the Editor

I just finished working through the fine line edits and other changes to my novel for what my editor called "clarity and consistency." Since I'm used to being the one wielding the red pen--hence my nickname The Evil Editor (TEE)--it was odd to be on the receiving end of edits. The experience wasn't bad--it was just different.

My editor started off by encouraging me and telling me what she liked about my manuscript. How could I not be willing to at least consider her suggestions for improving my story? And, truth be told, she had some great insights that strengthened my book.

How did I approach making the changes? I broke the job down into phases:

1. Read through the entire manuscript: I wanted an overview of the suggested changes so that I could mull over potential rewrites while I worked on other things.
2. Deal with the line edits first: Why not start with the simple changes first? It was easy to correct things like a missing period or removing an unnecessary comma or italicizing a sentence. After making the corrections, I read through the manuscript again to make certain I hadn't overlooked anything. (I had.)
3. Concentrate on improving clarity and consistency: This phase took more time and mental energy because it involved rewriting small segments of the book or writing some new scenes. I'm not talking pages and pages of rewrites, but I wanted to make certain that what I wrote fit into the book without a hiccup.
4. Check formatting: This felt like I was going behind the scenes of my manuscript. I hit the little paragraph symbol on my toolbar and voila! I could see all the extra spaces and unneeded tabs. With my husband's help, I spent two, maybe three hours cleaning up my formatting. 

So what's next? It's time to push the Send button and return my manuscript to my editor. Then it's fun and games with a photographer while I update my professional photo. (Oh, yes, there will be a blog post about this!) And I know I'll be seeing my manuscript again--with more edits. 

In Your Words: Have you had the chance to work with an editor? How did you approach working through any suggestions or needed changes?