The Modern-Day Editor

No one would describe me as cutting edge but I did feel thoroughly modern yesterday, writing a manuscript assessment for the highest bidder on the Authors For Japan auction with the iPad to my right and my (very shiny and very light) MacBook Air, not to mention the superb coffee brought to me by my own personal barista and live-in computer technician (he’s also the father of my children – talk about multi-tasking). Yes, those are my feet poking up in the background. It’s a hard-knock life.

This is manuscript assessment 4 of the 6 that I committed to this year (which started with the Authors for Queensland auction, pioneered by authors Kate Gordon, Katrina Germein, Fleur McDonald and I). Putting into carefully measured words what works or doesn’t quite work in a manuscript is a very valuable process and one I’d encourage all new (I count myself as new) writers to try – find a fellow writer, swap manuscripts, it does magical things to your own writing even if you can’t feel it happening. Manuscript voodoo.