Monday 23 February 2009

And then it was done.

At 2.42 am I finished the first end-to-end draft of the climate change book.  It has been a little like birthing an elephant but I think it's because we've engaged and re-engaged with the content on so many levels, as well as developing what I think is a completely new format with Badger's wonderful left-page-right-brain illustrations.

Thank you to everybody who has read and chatted about ideas within the book - there's a lot I've bounced around on the blog as a way of getting myself going when I lost my confidence in my ability to write. It has been a key part of the process for me in many different ways.

Anyway, this week I need some readers.  It's going to a proofer / editor but what I also really need is a bunch of people to read all or some of it and let us know your thoughts.  Probably what I'll ask people to do is direct feedback to the proofer / editor (the cornish cowgirl) and then she can filter through it and protect my ego for you, so you don't have to worry and can just tell me the nice things ;)

Let me know if you're interested!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Well done, Stray! I'd offer to help out but I'm already reading stuff for other people and working on my own rewrite which is a bit like trying to eat an elephant!

Random Reflections said...

I would really like to read your book! Happy to have a look and do actually check a lot of written work etc as part of my job.

Just let me know/ send something over if I can assist.

Unknown said...

Hey I'd be happy to read for you. I'm a pretty good proofreader. Kx

Unknown said...

If you are still in need of people to look at your draft, I would love to volunteer. Especially as someone who likes your writing style.

Are you looking for pure proofreading, or sense checking or stylistic criticism, etc?

I take it it would be an electronic document? Last time I offered to do this for a writer I got a kilo of paper in the post..

Stray said...

AV - thanks - and don't worry, I can imagine!

RR - cheers! Less concerned with the 'checking' side of things, as that's something the lovely editor is wonderful at, but what I'm really interested in is what do you follow / like / think is worth saying, and where are you lost / bored / fed up with me repeating myself. There are also a lot of big thoughts in the book, so I'm asking all readers to pick a couple of big ideas that they would dump if we were trying to simplify.

Scout - wonderful. As mentioned above it's less reading for spelling / grammar and more just for argument, editorial, ideas, boredom ... though anything you spot is good to pick up!

Drak - fab! Thank you sir. Sense checking it is indeed, and style, and anything else you'd like to give on a macro rather than micro level.

As you say - it'll be electronic - download from a website. I'm just getting some of the final proofing done by The Cornish Cowgirl and then will pop you a link this week.

Amazon vouchers for folk who give feedback ... but sshhh ... that bit is a secret.