Pages

Thursday 26 March 2015

Editing - the good times

My working space (yes, that is my YouTube music choice
and I have dusted the laptop since then!)
Editing has been going well. Things seem to be coming together. Into the last quarter of the novel, I have been cutting like no body's business. I've found several parts that I'm not happy with and ended up taking out about 400 words. I moved those deleted parts into a file just in case I decide to reinstate them in some form or other. As yet, I'm not sure how it will affect what follows and I might have to re-write other sections but I'm not worried about it as long as it improves the story.

I was thinking about the process of writing and how each story pulls me into different worlds. It's a bit like reinventing myself over and over - a bit like Madonna! I can live through different personalities of my characters. I'm not saying that I do but there is scope to do things with characters that I'd never do myself. That's exciting.

I am going through a good period of writing/editing at the moment. While attending to the novel I've found my interest in poetry has waned. I'm sure it's only temporary. Spending so much time in the world of my characters I guess its inevitable. It's been good because I've found myself mulling over the story again, seeing things I hadn't considered before, including a few more inconsistencies and ends to tie up. Silly things. like what happened to an object that was mentioned once and would have been important to my character, but I failed to mention again. That at least has been rectified. It's like I've stood back and seen some things for the first time. You'd think by a 3rd draft a lot of this would have been picked up first or at least second time round. It also begs the question - when will this novel ever be ready? Will it be like a poem that I can never leave alone?

The good thing is that I have got my second wind on the novel now. I went through a time when I had to drag myself to the laptop. Then, for a few days I didn't make it to the novel (though I made it to the laptop!) I hate feeling like that. My feelings change so quickly (I've always been like that) and no sooner had I wanted to leave it for a week, than I was back to it. Another fifty or so pages to go through. I wonder what happens then!

No comments: