Revision Notes

I received word from Musa last week that my future noir/detective novella Immaterial Evidence now has an editor assigned to the project and a publication date scheduled for May 31. Yesterday, I received the first round of edits and revision notes with a due date of March 31 for the next draft. Most of the changes will be cosmetic, but I've also been asked to write a prologue so readers will have a better handle on the story from the get-go.

Back in December, I mentioned that Immaterial Evidence is a sequel to Girl of Great Price (forthcoming from Criminal Element), and that it would be interesting if the sequel gets published prior to the original novelette. But even if the two stories were released in sequence, it would probably be a good idea to flesh out the backstory a bit before the novella opens. I'm not really a fan of prologues, but I'll make it work.

When I tell my students that every writer gets edited, even their English teacher, some of them look a little surprised. I ask them why I spend hours every week line-editing their essays, and a few will say, "To make us better writers." In a general sense, maybe; though I don't know how exactly to make anyone better at anything. Specifically, my goal is to help their next essays be better than their last. "And that's why I appreciate working with editors to make my own work the best it can be," I say. They always seem to like that.

Now I have another opportunity to practice what I preach, and I know Immaterial Evidence will be better for it.

Time to dive into those revisions.