Editing and when you hate your manuscript!

The writing room

 This month I am editing and making plans. Perhaps it's that autumn feeling of a new academic year and beginning new projects. I decided to look at the work I have and where I am at with it. I've been back over a short novella I wrote some years ago. I suppose you could say it's the first novella I ever wrote. It had been through a beta read/proofread a couple of years or so ago before I had ProWritingAid installed my on laptop. I gave it another run through using it and it picked up some sentence construction it didn't like. So, I looked at each. Some I left because they were dialogue which includes part sentences and slang. It's knowing when to obey the rules! However, it was useful and I did make charges. Even sentences it didn't flag up I reworked because I wasn't happy with them. The manuscript has now been through three edits in a week. Now comes the hard work. This is a novella I'm thinking of self-publishing. It's been a year since I tackled KDP for my novella-in-flash and I remember how stressful that was. The good thing is I don't have any deadlines, no one breathing down my neck to get it published by a certain date.

I am reading a stand alone Ian Rankin book at present (Westwind). I love it that the author writes about his writing process in his books. This is a reissue, so he has updated it and done a few edits. But he was describing how he felt about the other books at the time, ones he was either writing (a Rebus) and editing another. How his agent had problems selling Westwind, and how when he did, the editor wanted re-writes. Ian said how it became a book he couldn't look at anymore and it didn't feel like his work either. It got me thinking about how writers often don't have a say with agents/publishers. Yes, they do all that hard stuff, the selling, promotion etc, but it gets taken out of the author's hands. The author may not like the cover, may think (as Ian Rankin did) that it no longer feels their own. Ian Rankin has come back to his book and likes it now, but often the editing process distances the writer from the work. You get to hate it and can't make a judgement anymore of whether it is good or not. Basically, you just lose interest.

This happened to me with the first full novel I wrote. I went over the start so many times I couldn't read it anymore. I was getting it ready to submit it to a novel competition (it didn't get picked). It's still on my laptop. One day maybe I'll be able to go back to it.

I must admit I'd love to have someone to take care of marketing. I'm not good at that. My main writing is not novel writing either, though I have written them. I prefer flash, short stories and poetry. That feels different to novel writing in the whole marketing area. Everything seems geared to the bestsellers.

Meanwhile, back at the laptop, I've also re-written the ending of another novella and am gathering feedback on that. This one I might send out to see if it get picked up before I consider self-publishing.

I am still waiting to hear from two online journals when my pieces will go live. The waiting is dreadful and I keep checking because sometimes journals don't tell you when they publish.

Finally, I was thrilled to hear from The People's Friend late last month that they wanted to feature me as their writer of the week on their website. Would I be interested? Hell, I would! They forwarded a set of interview questions and I asked my son to take a photo for the piece. It went live on Monday 5th September. You can read it here. I was out on Monday, but when I had the chance, I stopped to take a look and did a little 'woop!'

Taking the plunge

You may have noticed the badge on my blog today. I am taking tiny steps into self-publishing. The first step was to become a member of The Alliance of Independent Authors. I did this over a month ago and last weekend I attended their online conference themed on the craft of writing.

I have a small book, a Novella-in-Flash, which I will be launching in eBook and paperback. This is somewhat daunting as I try to get a handle on jargon, learning software and marketing strategies. These things are out of my comfort zone, as I am sure they are for many people the first time they self-publish. Mistakes are bound to happen at first, but one day it might all become automatic. I can but hope!

At present I am sticking with this blog because there are so many other things to learn that to change it would just add to the stress. However, I hope that shortly I will have something to offer you.

Dilemmas

Since I last posted I have been looking again at self-publishing. For a long time I have considered using Scrivener, as I had been informed it is easy to convert files ready for publishing. So, I downloaded a trial version. It looked great, and I could see the  possibilities,but once I tried to use it for myself, I became quickly frustrated. The way I work is different every time. I have no formula, so my best option would be to use the blank template. Saving documents? Well, that was probably me, as I found files in places I didn't want them. I had trouble opening some of the files too. I became worried about losing work and actually copied and pasted some things into Word! I needed a re-think.

This is the conclusion I have come to (for now!). I actually like working in Word. It's what I know, and it's what people want when you submit work to competitions or magazines. I could see I would end up with two files for every piece of work I was writing. Getting to know Scrivener was going to take a long time, which would make it difficult for ongoing work. I have loads of Word files! What was I going to do?

I began researching online and using some links through A-Z of Publishing (video modules) that I had been working through since last year, and have considered two other options - Draft2Digital and Calibre. I downloaded 'how-to' sheets from various sites and printed them, as I am far better reading for hard copies, though I have saved them too, so I can use more links to useful information. The one that I will find most useful is formatting Word ready for conversion. I have tried out some of the things step-by-step, and found myself going into 'Paragraph', which I have never ventured into before! I'm taking it slow and have managed to format line spacing, font and indents. Next to tackle will be 'Headings' and creating a Table of Contents'. I am working on a particular document that I feel is ready to self-publish, but there is alot to learn along the way. However, I feel that working in Word is still the best option for me.

All this has taken a long time so far, and has been frustrating. For a while I just had to walk away from it all, especially after Scrivener!

Writing-wise, it is just nice that I can meet up with my writing buddy inside a cafe now. We no longer have to freeze on park benches, or hide from the rain. We have returned to a cafe opposite the Thames by Hammersmith Bridge, but we have also written in some nice places, such as Holland Park, Fulham Palace Gardens, Canizarro Park and Wimbledon Park, and during the cold weather Hays Galleria on the South Bank, London and inside Center Court shopping centre in Wimbledon, perched on a ledge outside a shop!

I have received a couple of rejections, and am trying to brush up my first novel for (maybe) submission to a competition. Meanwhile, I recently went back to a novella I began at least a year ago, in the gothic/thriller genre. I had a bit of brainwave about splitting the story using two viewpoints. The two storylines will come together, eventually. I have been enjoying writing the scenes. I've been doing what I used to do, playing the scenes out in my head first before I write them. It makes writing easier because I know what is coming! Sometimes I make notes for later.

I have been tidying my garden shed, making it a bit more comfy, and have hung a banner inside. I swept up (potting up plants is never a tidy task!), and then I took my laptop down there. There is a folding chair with a fleece over it and a small folding plant stand that I use as a table for my paperwork. I'm used to working with my laptop on my lap, anyway. Also, I have a solar light, so I can work in the evenings, which I did one night. However, it is not warm enough to work in during the cold weather, but now our youngest son has moved out, his room will come in useful during the winter!

I have come to stop for the moment, with writing, so I am stepping back again and am reading loads. Now summer has finally arrived, I can take my book into the garden. 

Things have felt a little more normal, as I was part of a walking/singing event in the Surrey Downs last Sunday. It was terrific to sing with a bunch of others, learning harmonies. And yesterday I played badminton for the first time in about ten months. Only six of us can play, so there is a list. Someone dropped out and my name came up. I won't expect to play every week, but now and then is better than not playing at all, seeing as I've heard that racquet sports will not start again in the sports centre in September, where I play short tennis/badminton. Let's hope singing can start up again indoors by then. Fingers crossed.

One month on

It's been almost a month since I last posted. And here we are back into lockdown, albeit not so hard as the last. In fact not a great deal seems to be different. There are lots of cars on the road, the buses vary, sometimes busy, other times quiet, and the high street doesn't appear much different either. Places are open for takeaways, and I used one myself yesterday. I don't feel as low as I did the first time round, in fact I feel quite positive. Having said that, I was with a friend on Wednesday, the day before lockdown. We were in London and managed to fit in some writing together outside before it got too cold. When we said our goodbyes, and I was on my way back to the station, I felt sad to be leaving London. It was the strangest feeling, like saying goodbye to an old friend.

So what have I been doing in the last month? Well, several things really. I've begun looking into self publishing and am currently taking a course in how to do it. It's a free course and very thorough. It covers the pitfalls, all the downsides as well as how to make and reach goals. You are warned that you will be overwhelmed. Yes, I am! But for now I'm just going through everything and making notes to see if this is what I want to do. Some of the information won't be for me, but I am learning a lot. I found the section on book covers particularly interesting, formatting work totally mind numbing. So, I am allowing myself a year to consider this and might put a toe in the water eventually.

Meanwhile, I have been submitting more than I have in a long time. I know I have a poem coming out in one of The People's Friend annuals very soon, and I was thrilled to hear last week that one of my 'lockdown' poems has been chosen for an anthology. More news on that soon. I have signed up for a course with The Poetry Kit, a three week course on Poetry and Music. And I have also joined Jo Bell's Try to Praise the Mutilated World initiative with daily prompts for however long lockdown goes on. I find I am mixing with poets whose books I've read, seen read and admire, as well as a former poetry tutor! Could be quite intimidating, but not, Everyone is lovely.

I'm hoping to take part in another virtual choir this month. Quite excited about that, but not about the prospect of having to record myself again It is always a fraught time and I have warned my son in advance!

When I'm not writing I try to get out for a walk. While the weather is in a warmer sunny mode I am taking advantage of it. Yesterday I even managed to sit on the garden bench and read for a while. Bliss.

I think I have been more places and taken more photos this year than I would in a normal year. I have found peace in walking, being with the trees and by water. This masked, restricted way of life is now becoming normal. I guess that's how people in war zones feel after a while because you cannot live in that kind of high anxiety forever. You accept what it is and get on with life the best you can. Not that I can compare Covid 19 with what Syrians have to deal with, but you get the picture. Life does go on, it has to, so you accept it and live.