R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I have a lot more respect for editors and agents now, especially editors. NOT that I didn't have any before, oh no. I really did. I just have more now. *g*

Last night I spent about 3 hours line-editing and critiquing the first chapter of a friend's MS. I'm glad to do it (though I don't know how she feels about all my comments!) but it took so much time. 'Course, part of that was switching colors and such in Word so my comments could be seen. I think I'm just gonna have to do the rest of it by hand and mail her the copies, honestly. I'd work much faster that way. Now I see what Kristin Nelson was talking about when she was raving about tablet PCs.

The end result was me zoned out and mentally drained at midnight with not a single new word written on my WIP (still in search of a working title, if anyone has any ideas). Again, I'm happy and excited to do it, but wow - is it hard. And that's just the first chapter. About 11 single-spaced pages. There are 21 more chapters to go. And if I were an editor and had to do this all day every day, I'd pull my hair out. And if I were an agent I would totally understand why other agents rejected good books that needed revision first, because they don't have the time.

And when I finish my WIP, and have beta readers that do this for me, I will shower them with love and affection. *g*