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Wednesday 6 January 2016

Start, stop edit.

I was going to do some editing this afternoon but time is running out now. Having boxed up the Christmas decorations, sent the emails I needed to write, written on my other blog, I now have the wet washing to hang and tea to think about.

Still, I did make a start on editing yesterday. I know I will still have to go back and change the beginning again, but this is the first edit when I see if it all works.The beginnings of my novels are never my strong point. It seems to take me a couple of chapters or so to really get into writing, find my voice, be my characters. I know with this one there are a couple of early chapters which appear sluggish. This novel is a comedy which drifts into dark humour and sometimes keeping up the humour can feel rather staged. Keeping it natural comes easy at times, so much so that I'm laughing as I type. Other times I'm searching for the right level. All the chapters are short but I might consider merging several chapters if it works better. At least I've made a start and that is always the hardest part. The first edit is always the worst. To me it's like the blank page. Then I look at my words and think 'this isn't as good as I remember it!' Perhaps that's good. There's a long way to go yet.

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