Editing Old Manuscripts

During a very productive period after I retired in 2007 until we moved back to Southern California in 2015, I completed  a number of mystery novel manuscripts. To date, 14 mystery novels, a thriller and a non-fiction book have been published. A number of the other manuscripts are in the publishing pipeline, and there’re others I have not yet submitted for publication.

When a completed manuscript is ready to be submitted, I always have to go through an editing pass to fix things that have changed since initial writing. As an example, in my thriller, The Tesla Legacy, I referred to Osama bin Laden hiding in a cave. By the time it was ready to be published, he had been killed, so I needed to edit the wording.

Many of my novels refer to actual places. Another thing I’ve run into is that restaurants that characters visit go out of business. If my novel is to take place in current times, I then need to change the restaurant or use a fictitious name.

For some of the manuscripts, I have left the time in the past. For others I use current time. If using current time, I also need to be aware of changes in technology. A novel taking place in the 1980s can refer to pay phones but not in current times. I’m reading an older mystery right now where the protagonist uses a dial up link for her computer. Phone and computer technology can date a manuscript.

All part of a writer’s editing challenge.