I need to be more anal

I finished the galleys for Marshal in Petticoats and am now working on the edits from the editor for Gambling on an Angel. And do you know how many times I used a version of "look" in the first three chapters! Aii Yi Yii! And do you know how many times I had already gone through that manuscript before I sent it? I am learning something about myself as I go through this publishing thing - I do not take enough time on the little things. I like to splash the pages with my characters and my story and color it up. Make the chracters memorable, add scene, dialogue, but dang, I hate to look for redundant words, ly words, and anything else that takes time and not creativity. It's the same reason I don't like to do anything that requires meticulous work. I want an end product in a hurry and don't ask me to clean up the glue smudges or take out the basting! LOL

What I've learned: though I don't mind looking for the little things in someone else's work - I HATE doing it in mine! But now that I know that, just like everything else I've learned along the way to becoming published, I'll be looking for all those things and soon it will become second nature as I write and it won't be so tedious in the final edits.

I hope!