I do NOT like line editing.  There, I said it.  Commas annoy me and coordinating conjunctions that need them, bore me.  Revisions drive me bananas, too, but not like line editing.

My favorite professor in grad school (you know who you are, Dr. Dulce Maria Gray!)  always reminds me that revision and editing are two totally different things.  Revision, comprised of the prefix “re,” which means “again” and “vision” which contains the root “vis,” meaning “to see”, requires  a new look at the piece – a re-seeing, if you will.  Revision means changes to content.  New imagining. Editing if often associated with lower-order concerns, grammar, word-issues and things like that.  It’s methodical work, and above all, it is necessary.

If I send my manuscript to an agent, and it is full of comma splices or lacks commas, then the agent is going to put the manuscript down unread because such errors are distracting to a reader.  That agent is never going to want to represent me then!  If I can’t respect her time enough to perfect the manuscript before I give it to her, then I don’t deserve representation.

See, I know all this, and yet, I still hate line-editing and do whatever I can to avoid it.

But now there’s no more excuses.  I want the manuscript complete.  I want representation from a reputable agent.  The only thing standing in my way is this line-editing.  Then when it’s done, I will be ready to start submitting the manuscript to agents. But not before then.  So this is me, buckling down to work!

Watch out world, here I come!