Actually did more editing yesterday than I was expecting to. Especially when I spent a lot of the day watching World Superbikes with himself [some great racing though!] Am now part way through scrutinising the long, kinky scene, using both paper and screen editing... and I'm finding it's far more humane somehow. Definitely a love type scene... the growing bond between the two characters is really coming out, even though the action is very pervy. And I'd almost forgotten this, despite the fact that I only wrote it just over two weeks ago!
That's the problem with having a crap memory! I can't 'hold' the story of a novel in my head these days... I used to be able to once upon a time, esp. when I was engaged in my futile attempts to write Mills and Boon novels [only 55K] but nowadays, the RAM inside my head must have degraded or something, because five minutes after I've written something, I've more or less forgotten it!
Which can create inconsistencies if I'm not careful to scrutinise and edit work several times... although having a critique partner can be an enormous help in spotting the funnies. An instance I encountered in yesterday's editing was... Annie describes making a phone call to someone in the narrative, and then later, when talking to Valentino, she describes the same incident as an actual meeting!!! Ack, nearly a nasty accident there... And also there have been one or two minor occurrences of things being said or done or not said or not done that have impact on the story later on, but which I've completely overlooked...
You can pick up other things in 'repeat runs'... For instance, it suddenly occurred to me that Annie might have behaved like a complete bitch to a secondary character, Charles. But in the editing, it's possible to make her seem less so... by the simple expedient of inserting one, single sentence, that shows that in fact Charles was the one behaving badly.
Anyway, hope to finish this 'pass' today, and maybe do a few more little tweaks... and then hopefully I can send it off to my CP [her time permitting...] and also my agent. And they'll spot even more things that I've missed!!!
4 comments:
Hi Wendy
Stuck half way through book which has to be delivered by early next month. No chance!
Glad your edits are going well. I've finally got a blog, too - years later than you - and discovered how time-wasting they are. I just want to go on reading everybody elses...
I've been reading Lisette Ashton's Forbidden Reading while I've been away, so I'm in the mood for more kinky naughtiness LOL Looking forward to reading SS, Wendywoo!
Enjoy your blog, Lesley! I'll be sure to visit regularly...
Hi Saskia... well, I've finished the edits and I'm in the usual mixed feelings dilemma about it. One minute I think there's some good stuff there. The next I think it's a bit of an incoherent ramble with no story to speak of and some very unrealistic characters. It's sort of stranded between a fantasy scenario that's not meant to be at all real, and something that hopefully represents a 'real' person with real feelings, doing sexy stuff...
I don't know... this writing lark never, ever gets any easier, does it?
I know that feeling. :-) Don't worry, I'm sure it will be a super read.
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