Self-editing - last post

Six weeks has flown by, usefully and enjoyably.  And worth every penny, for the friends made, the insights and skills learnt and for the fact that I now know where to take my book next, and why.
Debi Alper asks questions.  Difficult questions that I can, for a while, ignore, hands over ears, muttering "yes but ..."
In the end it's not so much that I can't ignore as it becomes so bloody obvious.  A 'light bulb moment' as she is fond of saying.

Phew.

At just over ninety thousand words I feel able to declare what began life as 'Susannah Elphinstone' and what is currently 'Longest shadows reach' finished.  By which I mean after many many re-readings and writings I think it is, apart from minor tweaks, finished.

It is the follow up to what was .'Not wanted on voyage' and became 'A step so grave' which I temporarily abandoned after submitting it to an agent and a book doctor at York's Festival of Writing in September. This had undergone three major re-writes and I did not then have the stamina for an immediate fourth one.

I also have 'Making good' awaiting a final edit - the fourth and final on in the Bridie and Sean saga.

My intention is to sign up for the six week  'Self editing your novel', course run by the Writers Workshop which begins January 7th, using 'Longer shadows reach'  but before that I intend to play a bit more with the cover design.