Gemini Rising

50% Editing

Welp, I'm editing

STATIC

The Lighthouse Keeper's Secrets  (13+) It's the 1930s, and Damian meets Esther for the first time. #2350762 by StephBee

for the Lodestar contest. My edits are due 1 FEB 2026.

I'm used to editing and editing is a process. At work, I had a lady who used to be a court transcriber who loved editing. She was my beta reader for a lot of stories which I appreciated. She would do the technical stuff with the grammar, punctuation, and spelling and missed words, but she'd also read for content. For example: Why did that character do that? That makes no sense. Then we'd kind of talk about, parse it out and flesh out something that worked better. Nearly 99% of the time, my beta reader always identified something that didn't work or something that worked better.

Grr... she retired last NOV!!

She did say she was available for edits, but I know she's got her hands full with her mom's dementia so I don't necessarily want to trouble her, so I've been working on edits myself. I think a very important aspect of editing involves the editor being open to the edits. If you're not open to constructive criticism, then it's really hard.

I got a WONDERFUL review from Amalthea that was beta reader quality and I was so excited!! That said, I finally caught up on all my other WDC stuff and I've been working on these edits for the above story and I'm WICKED excited about them.

Bet you never heard anyone say they were excited about edits, huh?

Writing is 50% writing and 50% editing - at least in my book. I know a GREAT edit can make a good story even that much better and I can see these edits really growing into themselves.

Ultimately, we'll see what shakes out with the story. I just completed a set of edits and I'll proof the story tonight for more, ie, spelling, grammar, puncutation, content, etc...

Just kinda juiced to see how they are shaping up.