Editing... editing... editing...

I've begun editing Dragon God. That's the new title for the book I've been writing--the sequel to Warrior Pledge. I've finished the story and have started looking for everything that needs to be fixed. It's not difficult to find things that need to be fixed.

I've done the first run through where I changed all the sentences that began with "So...". I changed most of the characters' names as well. Having too many character with names beginning with the same letter or with the same vowel sounds can be very confusing. Now I have a whole heap of character names that have two syllables. *sigh* I'll have another look at names later.

It was really difficult to change the main character's name because I've identified with him as Artemis. Unfortunately there's an Ardelle in Warrior Pledge and we meet her again in Dragon God so I couldn't have another name beginning with A. Artemis has gone through Truman and Eiledon, and is currently sitting with Gaelan. He might or might not remain that way.

I made notes throughout the writing of the book to try to make it easier for me to locate sections that needed work. In some ways, that's worked. The sections labelled 'sex scene' now have sex scenes written for them. The sections labelled 'this is weak' have now been strengthened.

There are other sections I've put something like 'check that this has been foreshadowed'. Those are the problem ones, because I then have to spend time finding exactly the right place to foreshadow what's going to happen later. Sometimes it only needs a sentence or two, but those sentences have to be in exactly the right place. While I'm searching for that 'exactly right' place, I find a whole heap of other things that need to be fixed.

You guessed it: distraction city.

I've used all my notes to make a list of things that have to be done, and am working my way through it, distractions notwithstanding.

My next job is to find the two paragraphs (perhaps more) that I wrote while I was asleep. To explain, I fell asleep at the keyboard and kept typing. Those paragraphs consist of one word sentences that might or might not make sense in the context of the story. That's today's job.

As inspiration, I have the picture I've used as inspiration for Gaelan. It's a purple dragon by Deligaris. I bought a copy of the print for my wall. It looks great.