Wednesday 2 May 2012

Another draft

I've trimmed the lumpy middle, slowed down the precipitate ending and sharpened up the beginning. I have a new draft of the book, and now I'm ready to send it off with a report on where I've made changes, and let it go where it goes. I've also let go of the title and am proud to declare 'The Secrets of Life and Death' open. I've had some very good advice from a  recently published author - trust the agent, let her do her job. Which will give me a chance to get back to BT2.

Having had time doing edits to think about BT2 (or should that be TSOLAD2?) I have thought of plot twists, approached, characters. Because I'm not blessed with a plotting mind, I have to let plot strands come to me, and each new one means reweaving the old ones, but I'm getting better at that. The difference is, I know this is just the first draft. It's the basis for future drafts, but there will be some pretty major revisions. So I can experiment with this first draft, it's very freeing.

A Baby's Bones , also known as Book 2 (this is getting confusing) is also getting restless, and I can see where it is going much easier now. With the poetry collection to work on as well, I have even more reason to write. Happy days.

I surprised myself by enjoying the editing process. I get so far with a draft, I know it's flawed, but I can't see what to do. Then the agent came along with 'it's great, but would be even better if you...' and new ideas popped into my head. Rewriting became a creative process again, having to imagine new ways to get from A to B. 

I'm loving writing at the moment, and It doesn't hurt that the sun's out...  

4 comments:

  1. The sun? Where?

    Welcome The Secrets of Life and Death and good luck on your journey.

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    1. Hi Downith! I think the West country tries out the weather before it comes your way. Expect sunshine...I'm hunting down adverbs at the moment, some chapters seem entirely, ridiculously, interminably swamped with them.

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  2. Yay for enjoying the editing, last I heard you were not looking forward to it, it sounds great and the title is definitely something you have to pick up and see what its about. Hope the adverb hunting is going well? x x x

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  3. I've killed 400 adverbs with the heel of an old shoe. Splat!

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