Editing Blog and Book--Improving Quality as a Process

Much of the day was invested in editing the blog book--and finding edits to make to the blog itself.  As I organize the posts into chapters of related themes and entries, I also find spelling errors, broken links, or omissions where I forgot to complete a thought.

Quality improvement is a process and this one is coming to the forefront because of the need to edit the book.  At the end of the process, both book and blog will be much improved.

As I edit, I revisit the thoughts behind the entries and make new decisions regarding themes and chapters.  The three chapters I worked on today each have about thirty-five pages.  I'll have to decide on the order for the chapters as I have more ready.  At present, it looks as though I'll have about sixteen chapters.

What's amazing is that this book is "already written."  Changing the format will be a definite improvement.

Editing Posts into Book Format--A Challenge

Editing posts into book format is a challenge.  I've been working with Blurb.com's software and, while cumbersome, I'm about 1/8th of the way through my posts.  I have everything copied into Microsoft Word as well, though that appears even harder.

One of the challenges is that the labels (tags, categories) I have included in my blog don't make it into the version used for editing--at least not in the same format.  Microsoft Word captures the html code, though not for printing.

I've edited the first fifty plus posts out of 244.  The page count is already over three-hundred.  I know from reading books that people of my age and beyond need Arial font and 12 point typestyle or higher.  That's what I'm using for the body of the book.

I have to see how to get the book ready for publication at a reasonable cost and availability.  My 95-year-old mother is interested in reading my drafts.  (She read my draft dissertation three times almost 20 years ago.)

Editing Lots of Posts--Inspiration--Creativity-Perspiration--Perspective

Editing the posts in this blog to date--this is post #239--is lots of work.  I now have all of the posts in a format that allows editing.  To turn it into a book--or multiple books--requires lots more work and thinking about the details of the posts.

Lynn Pierce advised me that I could have the book ready to edit by the end of the weekend and she was right--it's ready for editing, though not yet edited.

I'll be working on the edits during the week and we'll see what I have to share as the work progresses.  I'm looking for inspiration and perspective as I work with creativity and perspiration. 

Wish me luck!! :-)

Editing this Blog into a Book

I've begun to organize the blog posts into categories for publishing in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format for eventual publishing in book form.  My goal is to have a pre-publishing draft ready by Monday, March 29th.

Categories are based on the tags I have added to each entry.  I have begun the process and have much more to do.