Chapter by Chapter

I've spent the last three weeks editing my chapter book I'm Just Daisy.  A kind editor from B.C. critiqued my manuscript for free and offered me some constructive criticism.  His two main points were:  your prose is too flat and you need to engage your characters more.  So, chapter by chapter, I've gone through my manuscript, trying to follow his advice.  I cut the final chapter which seemed unnecessary.  I added a chapter "The Tea Party" to give the book a bit of humour.  I lengthened several scenes, adding dialogue to bring them to life.  I added details to every scene to make the story less generic.  I've given the main character Daisy a stronger point of reference.  Wherever possible, I've tried to re-work important items into the book in later chapters:  Daisy's famous butter tarts, a yellow-throated bird that lives in the Muskokas, the confetti that lands in Daisy's hat on her voyage to Canada.  The editing process gave me a chance to do further research on the era.  I worked in a paragraph about the history of the Model T, Charlie's first automobile.

I discovered once again that I don't just love the research stage and the writing process; I love the editing process.  What's the next step?  I've made a list of ten more publishers to query.  I feel confident knowing that this time I can mail them a stronger version of I'm Just Daisy. 

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