On being copyedited

I've gone a touch silent on this blog - nothing stifles the will to write like dealing with copyedits (currently for my new book, Suffer and Survive).

I'm grateful of course - some fine professional has pored over my manuscript in their appropriately obsessive way. I accept most corrections, and buzz away to my stack of papers and books to shore up my own research as necessary. It's last chance saloon so far as getting the details right. Reading the whole thing slowly also lets me catch my own infelicities.

Copyeditors are not meant to enthuse though, which makes for a dispiriting plod through the manuscript. Only possible faults, standardization of grammar to house rules, and questions to be found, never ticks and smiley faces. It means digging your way back into the whole background of the book when you had just laid it to rest.

I've just pulled a bibliography into shape, and now need to take a red pen to the pages of endnotes. I had thought it might be fun to assemble my own fix, but now know better. Let it go, Martin, let it go.

(The picture is of the ruins of the Haldane family castle in Gleneagles.)