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.
