Editing Notes

As those who follow my blog know I have been working on re-writing and editing my second book.

I have been also adding dates and times to each section as I go through the book.  My editor and I are up to Chapter 8.  While I am re-writing with what I've learned since writing the rough draft and am at Chapter 18 of 25 chapters total.  Last night my Editor sent me a message saying 'Your using military time?  They don't use colons in military time.  So, this is news to me, and I was in the Army for a number of years and have read lots of books that used colons when displaying military time.  In my first book, Whisper, I used military time and used colons.

So I got on the Internet first thing this morning and researched proper formats for using military time.  They even used colons in examples of military time but said that the military does not use colons in using a 24 hour time and that they will designate with a letter what time zone they are operating in or use a Z for Zulu if it is a universal time designation not specific to a particular time zone.  I should have known the master was right from the beginning but that's how we learn to trust.  I also realized the wealth of knowledge you need to be a great editor and a master at editing.

Final note is because of my editing I am ruining my reading experiences because I can't read hardly anything with out spotting the errors in the work and feel temped to pull out my pen and make a correction which would not be so kind to my Kindle.

So tonight after I finish making corrections to Chapter eight and send the next bunch to my editor.  After I finish rewriting Chapter 18.  I will start at the beginning of the book and go back through it again taking out all the colons and adding a Z to the time stamps through out the book.  It's a labor of love.  It has to be or you wouldn't remain a writer.

For those interested in my first book goto http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38922

Posted in: editing colon military time zulu