Sweet! I finished typing up the last chapter of Book One tonight! Or was it last night? This daylight savings thing has my system off as I try to remember whether I’ve switched all the clocks or not. Regardless, Book One is all typed up! At the moment, it is 277 pages. Those aren’t the typical pages that a word processor creates with 8.5″ x 11″ pages. These are pages for a 6″ x 9″ book. Little pages, so don’t freak out by the number. Or do. I don’t know what most people consider to be an average-sized book anymore. All of that’s beside the point: I’m done typing!

Well, I’m sort of done typing. Technically, now there’s the matter of going back and editing all of those 277 pages. I am planning on printing off a chapter at a time (using the usual 8.5″ x 11″ page size with a much smaller font and larger margin) so I can edit them by hand (the best method, in my estimation) then go back and correct errors on the computer. After going through all twenty-two chapters like this, I’ll give it another run-through on the computer to check for random word processing glitches like the wrong apostrophes or funny spacing and things of that nature. After that, it’s a simple matter of converting it to a format that Lulu.com recognizes and then uploading it with whatever cover I eventually come up with. Exciting! Considering how long it took to edit an average-length chapter, I’m guessing that because my work schedule is a bit heavier this month, that it might take me until the end of March before all the editing is done. Still, I’m happy that the book is finally typed up. I’ve only been working on typing it up for the past oh, I don’t know, five years? Hell, I started the book March 31, 2002, so this is seven years in the making already. What’s another couple weeks?

So now that I’ve gotten the whole thing typed up and the first chapter edited on paper, I think it’s time for bed. After all, I have to work in the morning. After work, I think I’ll go back through the thirty-five pages of notes for the first novel and see what all I need to edit/correct/add/remove/etc before getting too much further in the editing process. Chapter one won’t change. After all, I’ve probably gone over that chapter about twenty times already. It’s the end of the book that will require the most attention. Woo! Exciting. Now if only I was happier with the title. I hate coming up with titles. Oh well, bedtime. Night!