editing

An Insightful Week

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First I had an amazing Monday nights sleep when I woke up something had shifted; I knew I could do it, do anything I wanted to do. The confusion had gone.

Then Tuesday I sat in the cafe and wrote my Sexpo workshop just a first draft of course but I was ready, I am ready.

Wednesday was a day of family, my children performed in the most amazing play. Adapted from Samuel Beckett’s, Where’s Goddo? It was very prophetic, finally I had stopped waiting for acceptance, permission or confidence to arrive, all I need is me.

Thursday was an interesting meeting with a wonderful scriptwriter who had read my treatment. As with all first drafts there were things she liked and things she wanted to change. But the meeting proved to me that the main strand to my story was strong and it will be out there one day. That’s all I needed to know. 

Friday was an awakening, I had slept on the whole weeks happenings and loved waking up full of enlightenment. This is the start of full confidence in my story and my life.

The Treatment

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I have finished the first draft of my treatment, which has involved merging my two written novels together to form the very beginnings of a screenplay.

It has been a really interesting process and kind of like cutting all of the best bits together. Obviously all of your threads still need to nicely merge together to build the picture so although I have cut 150,000 words down to 12,000 the story still needs to build. I have had to let go of a few sub-characters but perhaps they will re-emerge in another draft.

It has been such an education, all of my characters talk in first person so I have had to re-write all of the scenes in third.  It is obvious I need to work on third person writing which doesn’t come naturally and makes me wonder how good I am at stepping outside of the situation.

The process has given me a greater perspective on situations in the manuscript that I have drawn from my own experience which has made the story stronger.

I would highly recommend writing a treatment of your novel to anyone struggling as the editing process really makes you realise what is vital to you the writer but more importantly what is crucial to the story.

Once I have had some feedback I will be sure to post an excerpt!

My first novel is available below

Sharks & Lovers available at Amazon
Kobo  And  iTunes

Drafts of Gold

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I have just re-edited and re-published my e-book, it was a decision made in response to feedback.  Although I am happy with the new edition with many minor changes to grammar and punctuation I still believe that one day my first ever draft will be published so that the bare bones are visible. I won’t substantially edit that because it would lose its honesty. For now however I will conform.

Having just started writing the ‘treatment’ for adaption into screenplay, I am combining book one and two. This process has so far minimised the story from around 150,000 words down to 30,000. These are the main scenes that carry the story and characters forward, almost the best bits which is very gratifying. Obviously I am now looking at both novels completely differently, it’s a confusing, interesting and enlightening process, suffice to say I am learning and growing.

The treatment is in effect just another draft, of hundreds. I thought once my book was published the endless drafts would stop but I was wrong. Every process needs a draft so the adapting, editing and reworking will continue.  Those first drafts are worth their weight in gold, I now realise.  Like most things in life you need time away from something to really appreciate it.

Next on the list is the S.E.L.F book project which explores how writing can be used as therapy this is my Sexpo project and is very much in draft form, another draft!

My book Sharks and Lovers is available to download here

 

Editing

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Finally, after a year and a half of grappling with editing, I think I just about have it sussed!  I have to share with you my findings because I am sure a lot of other writers struggle with this too.  Obviously, once you have a manuscript you know it will need editing so you start with the content, changing the odd grammatical error here and there as you go. However if like me you needed to edit your entire manuscript six times for content before you felt you had a finished product by the end of that process you have had enough of your baby crying. When someone says they will copy-edit for you, you almost bite their hand off.  Please take this screaming baby away for a while and give me a break!

There are three types of editing light, medium and heavy and within those contexts, there is also substantive and mechanical.  Substantive refers to the order of content and could be construed as heavy editing as it will also edit out content that is not relevant.  Mechanical editing is relating to grammar, punctuation, spelling and footnotes.  When using a publisher they may well have an in-house editor that will mechanically edit your manuscript to fit their style of print and product.

There are many programmes that you can run on your computer to edit your grammar and punctuation but they might not all understand your content.  For example, my novel starts out in Southend on Sea in Essex, England.  I’m afraid there ain’t a product out there that’s gonna give me the license I need to mess ’bout with words and get really lairy with my content.  So using a person surely makes sense?  Maybe if you live in exactly the place you want the manuscript read or based.  Otherwise, you have to make do with a few proofreaders and hope they understand your spoken language vs readability vs message.

My problem with clients is that I am in love with language and people’s nuances I love an accent and even better I love broken words and out-of-place context.  Perhaps I am destined to always be a light editor!  I am just not critical enough I love everyone’s speech.  Although I have today for the first time gone through my manuscript and seen the errors, every single one of them!  Is it because I have a printer ready to go?  Or is it because I have relaxed and realised everything will come in time and I’m allowed to make mistakes?  I guess the test will be when I next look at my client’s work, will I see the errors or only hear the voice?

The most fantastic thing is that my printed copy will be the best I can possibly produce and I now know exactly the process I need to go through with book two.  I will edit content first, a heavy substantive edit followed by a light substantive edit and then two or three mechanical edits.  Nothing is ever perfect and when I found an error in Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s I have to admit to a tiny feeling of elation.  However as I tell my children we can only do our best and then we can learn, improve and do even better!

My book can be downloaded at these websites

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GD8OG98

Kobo

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/sharks-lovers

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781925457209

 

Dark Inspiration

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Harold Pinter and his Dark World

When I picked up The Home Coming from my book shelf it was actually to show a client how their work would look in print.  It was just the number of words, not the content that was similar. Sometimes hard copy can be inspiring when your work seems only ever to be on the computer screen.

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Getting the First Draft Down

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Let It Go, Let it Flow – The only way to get the first Draft

Everyone has their own methods of writing a first draft and the great news is there is no wrong way! You can map out your chapters if you have a particular plot in mind or perhaps you are writing a non-fiction and have a list of exactly what you want to explore. Even with non-fiction you still need to let it flow.  Perhaps a particular topic or character just won’t stop talking, that’s ok, let it all out!

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The Second Book

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Oh the second book is so much better! I am even enjoying the edit. Don’t get me wrong the first book is good but as someone once told me, ‘the first book is just getting rid of the emotion, the second is where the magic begins!’  That was great advice,  I would love to post some of it on here. However I’m still hoping for a publishing deal so I need to keep my cards close to my chest, for now!

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Ten Months of Writing

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I thought I’d map out what has happened this year.  In February I started writing my first fictional novel, my aim was to finish this by December. Then at Swinburne Uni I was told ‘write everyday’. My good friend bought me a planning diary and I soon realised my manuscript would be finished way before Christmas! In fact it was finished in July.  All 67,000 words of it, I actually wrote more like 80,000 but edited it down.  I think it fits in the genre of Chick Lit, a friend said it could be Bridget Jones meets Monkey Grip.

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Marvellous Mistakes – Editing

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Editing my first book was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done mentally for a long while.  After rearranging the content of the book three or four times I was sick of the sight of it!

‘Know your book inside and out before approaching anyone with it!’

How can you not know it inside and out when you have read the bloody thing five times! Frustration started to creep in and I still needed to tackle the grammar and punctuation.  Arguments with the proofing tool could go on for hours! Never mind saving expletives for dramatic effect.  I was aiming them all directly at my stilted reflection in the laptop.

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