I am trying to edit my novel and I know many people warned me this would be the hardest bit, but it is only now that I truly believe them. It's ridiculously hard!
    When I was writing the novel I could get my head down and happily churn out a few thousand words a day, nothing could distract me. However, now I am editing everything is distracting me. I have found hours sliding away as I read threads on twitter and try to get my head round Facebook.
    So today I pledged it would be different. Today I would concentrate and finish my final edit, with no distractions. However, my daughter's caterpillars have started to emerge from their chrysalides, we now have 3 out of 5. As the cat took an instant interest to them they are now in their pop up enclosure on my table. So if one flutters that's it I down tools and study them for a few minutes. Then I wonder if they would like a change from orange and perhaps I should cut up some apple. Trouble is you really can't tell if they are feeding or not, as obviously they don't leave teeth marks! One of the chrysalides started to shake so I watched that for ages in the hope a butterfly would emerge, but there was nothing other than more wasted time. I have now moved the butterflies to the edge of the table and out of my line of sight, but that only solves one problem.
    Today we have two strapping young men who have come to create order out of the jungle that is our garden border. Gardening to me is just outdoor housework, so a bit of bad weather has meant that the weeds have run riot and the established plants are attempting world domination. The fragile border that was holding it all together has collapsed under the pressure, so before I did the same I thought it was time to get the professionals in. So at silly o'clock they arrived with van, skip and crane and got to work. They work incredibly fast and it's fascinating to watch, I'm just thankful that it's not a hot day otherwise I'd be pulling up a chair! Interestingly they are not distracted by me sat at the window editing.
    I have now turned my back to the window in the hope that I can concentrate and get this finished. Wish me luck!
    ... Umm I wonder how many people have read my blog today? ...

I have finished the first draft of my novel! I could not have been more exited to type in the words ‘The End’! In total I have written 128,092 words and at long last I can say that I have written a novel, even if nobody ever reads it! I started celebrating with a bottle of pink champagne within minutes of finishing and have pretty much spent most of the week on a bit of a high (this is due to the excitement not the pink fizz).

I am now staring at a very large manuscript, that needs some serious editing to ensure that it is both the right length for my genre and it is not a crime to literature. This is so much easier said than done. Nobody  warned me about this bit. I am trying to follow Roz Morris’ Beat Sheet method where you start off by summarising each chapter without actually changing anything. This is a great idea, but it's proving too hard for me. As I read it I keep having little light bulbs and alarm bells triggered that need immediate attention. Instead of my aim to reduce the word count, I keep spotting things that should be ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ and blinding omissions where I need to add an explanation, otherwise the reader will be lost. So in short my editing is resulting in a higher word count. Argh!

I’m sure it will get easier, and I will persevere as my wonderful group of readers are patiently waiting for a readable draft, and they deserve the best I can produce, as they may be the only people that ever read it!