Allison Ringness

Thirty-Six Open Tabs

By

Allison
Twenty-odd printed chapters of a book covered in sticky notes and laid on the floor below the binder where they previously lived
Twenty-odd printed chapters of a book laid on the floor below the binder where they previously lived. They are covered in more sticky notes than before and several chapters have been removed, leaving gaps in the layout.
The process is messy on multiple levels

The beta read is nigh! I am crossing t’s, dotting i’s, casually ripping chapters out of the middle, and otherwise making the book ready for the beta readers. I feel like I am running around with thirty-six tabs open: so many thoughts! So many tiny tasks! A finite amount of time!

A selection of the open tabs, for those of you who like process notes:

  • I need to redraw the maps
    • Note to self for next time: learn how to draw better maps
  • Is “spycraft” one word or two?
  • Don’t forget to put a watermark on the document
  • Don’t forget you added a scene to one chapter
  • How many characters can you have before you need an index?
  • Computer tab: is Mjollnir spelled with one l or two?
  • For the love of Pete don’t forget to run through the copy editing checklist before PDF-izing
  • Do you remember how to create an accessible PDF?

This week, we have chaos. Next week, the book will be in readers’ hands, where it was always meant to be. Wish me luck!