The copyedit is done, and Not by Sword is with my proofreading team now!

As I mentioned before, I chose to work with Molly from Rookwood Editing. She was fantastic to work with, and I’m confident she was the best choice for the book. Her edits were thorough and precise (although nobody can catch everything), and I really appreciated that she balanced positive comments with constructive criticism.

As I also mentioned previously, all the editors I requested sample edits from pointed out that I was incorrectly punctuating some of my quotations (Using commas with mid-quote dialogue tags when I should have used periods). She helped me track those down, and there were probably a hundred of them! Our biggest grammatical struggle was figuring out when to use italics for dialogue. In short, I was overusing them. Characters in my Codex Risani universe often communicate their thoughts directly when linked with a ship, and this special kind of speech needed to be set apart with italics. I am also in the habit of using italics whenever a character is speaking over a telephone or hollering from a different room. We discussed this and settled on only using italics for the link. All dialogue that is actually spoken aloud, even if it’s distant, remains roman.

The more interesting (and challenging!) part of the copyedit was reading and incorporating Molly’s feedback regarding consistency, characters, and story arcs. The most obvious example is Milo’s viol. This instrument is his most treasured possession and his only link to his mother’s memory. It’s safety is a major concern for Milo in the first half of the story. Then at the halfway point, when crap hits the fan, and he actually finds himself in peril, the viol totally disappears from the story and is never mentioned again. That was a big continuity error, and having it pointed out gave me a great opportunity for some emotional resonance in the denouement. Molly also noted some places where Milo’s confidence level didn’t match his character arc, so I was able to tweak those.

She also suggested some changes that I chose not to make, the biggest one being a suggestion to age up the main characters by about four years. Milo is sixteen in the main body of Not by Sword, and that age is potentially unrealistic for the amount of responsibility resting on him. The same is true of the princes and princesses of the royal household. Ultimately, I decided that keeping Milo as a youth was important to the DNA of the story, especially since I’m adapting the David & Goliath story which hinges on the outsized courage of a shepherd boy out of his depth. But choosing not to implement this suggestion doesn’t mean I ignored it! In revision, I hung a lantern on it, having Milo notice how strange (and possibly irresponsible) it is for the king to invest so much authority in his children, and in Milo. I also made him a little more inept in grown-up social situations.

Having now experienced both a developmental and a copyedit, I can say that my book definitely benefitted from both! I’m glad that I got both, and both were valuable learning experiences. I can see myself someday growing beyond the need for the developmental edit as my story and character instincts become stronger, but I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow the copyedit. It’s too valuable to have an expert review your manuscript for errors that you’ve become blind to in your own repeated readings of your own work. I’ve also elected to use a team of volunteer proofreaders rather than pay one, so when that process is done, I’ll let you know how it goes!