Day 97

That old enemy – Editing

There’s going to be an analogy – starting with jagged and unwieldy rocks, and after chipping away at those rough edges, what remains is a smooth, enjoyable object.

Ah, if only it were that easy….

I’m sure most of us would like to think that the first time we write the pages, it’s perfect. Why would I need to go over it again?

I might have thought that a long time ago, but back in those days when I thought I could walk on water, a friend of mine picked up a few pages of one of my manuscripts and offered to read it.

I didn;t like the idea, but he insisted.

Well, three pages and about 11 mistakes, punctuation, grammatical issues, sentence structure, and spelling. How could it miss spelling when I had the spell checker on? And what grammatical errors, I ran the grammar checker over it?

I think I realised by then that no man-made assistant tool was going to be 100% perfect, and I would have to read and edit it myself properly. Which I did, over 535 pages, and took nearly a year, and at times a wealth of frustration.

I found plot holes, one place where a character’s name had completely changed halfway through the story, and inconsistencies in the factual parts of the story.

Fact checkers? Where are you?

It caused me to make a summary of each chapter with the plot points, a chart that followed the characters and where they were participating, a timeline to make sure things didn’t happen out of order, and a family tree to get the characters in their correct places in the family hierarchy.

In other words, I should have planned it from the start!

Well, maybe.

I think in the end it was easier just to write the story than do all the planning from what I had. I found that I might not have been able to produce the story I had if I’d tried to think of everything in the beginning.

Now, I follow that, after spending a little time getting the story off the a good start, developing where it might go, and with those ideas in mind, let it run its course. And the characters do end up in their trees and timelines, as I go, so that going back and fixing problems is not so hard.

Of course, as always, I’m open to new ideas, extensions or improvements on tried and tested methodology, and any ideas you might have, I’m always open.

Day 97

That old enemy – Editing

There’s going to be an analogy – starting with jagged and unwieldy rocks, and after chipping away at those rough edges, what remains is a smooth, enjoyable object.

Ah, if only it were that easy….

I’m sure most of us would like to think that the first time we write the pages, it’s perfect. Why would I need to go over it again?

I might have thought that a long time ago, but back in those days when I thought I could walk on water, a friend of mine picked up a few pages of one of my manuscripts and offered to read it.

I didn;t like the idea, but he insisted.

Well, three pages and about 11 mistakes, punctuation, grammatical issues, sentence structure, and spelling. How could it miss spelling when I had the spell checker on? And what grammatical errors, I ran the grammar checker over it?

I think I realised by then that no man-made assistant tool was going to be 100% perfect, and I would have to read and edit it myself properly. Which I did, over 535 pages, and took nearly a year, and at times a wealth of frustration.

I found plot holes, one place where a character’s name had completely changed halfway through the story, and inconsistencies in the factual parts of the story.

Fact checkers? Where are you?

It caused me to make a summary of each chapter with the plot points, a chart that followed the characters and where they were participating, a timeline to make sure things didn’t happen out of order, and a family tree to get the characters in their correct places in the family hierarchy.

In other words, I should have planned it from the start!

Well, maybe.

I think in the end it was easier just to write the story than do all the planning from what I had. I found that I might not have been able to produce the story I had if I’d tried to think of everything in the beginning.

Now, I follow that, after spending a little time getting the story off the a good start, developing where it might go, and with those ideas in mind, let it run its course. And the characters do end up in their trees and timelines, as I go, so that going back and fixing problems is not so hard.

Of course, as always, I’m open to new ideas, extensions or improvements on tried and tested methodology, and any ideas you might have, I’m always open.

Days 95 and 96

Story and book titles

…

This is an exercise in getting you to work on book titles, looking at the existing titles and working on whether there could be a better alternative, and as an aside, considering why you chose the one you did.

Often, to me, it seems like it’s very much akin to plucking a piece of paper out of the air, one of about a thousand.

The quest for a title for my current project took many a twist and turn, starting out with When The Planets Line Up, which, of course, was going to happen, but it was not the crux of the story. What came to me, when the story moved from a short story to a novel was “The Fourth Son, simple because that was what he is, and from all the woes and sour grapes we’ve endlessly heard from the infamous Second Son, or Spare, I thought, what if the impossible happened.

Titles have not always been that easy, and my editor sometimes has a few words to say about the titles I pick.

It was just the case with my David and Susan novels. I was going with Double Trouble and the Triple Trouble, but it seems What Sets Us Apart and Strangers We’ve Become were more suitable. There’s a third, and I have tentatively titled it “From Russia With…” but that might not last.

Quite often, stories I have written quite a few years back are still looking for an appropriate title, and three in particular that I wrote as a trilogy suddenly found themselves with titles after I read a series of Robert Ludlum novels and noted how he titled his stories.

The bottom line is that sometimes finding the right title is like creating the right cover, and then editing.

Days 95 and 96

Story and book titles

…

This is an exercise in getting you to work on book titles, looking at the existing titles and working on whether there could be a better alternative, and as an aside, considering why you chose the one you did.

Often, to me, it seems like it’s very much akin to plucking a piece of paper out of the air, one of about a thousand.

The quest for a title for my current project took many a twist and turn, starting out with When The Planets Line Up, which, of course, was going to happen, but it was not the crux of the story. What came to me, when the story moved from a short story to a novel was “The Fourth Son, simple because that was what he is, and from all the woes and sour grapes we’ve endlessly heard from the infamous Second Son, or Spare, I thought, what if the impossible happened.

Titles have not always been that easy, and my editor sometimes has a few words to say about the titles I pick.

It was just the case with my David and Susan novels. I was going with Double Trouble and the Triple Trouble, but it seems What Sets Us Apart and Strangers We’ve Become were more suitable. There’s a third, and I have tentatively titled it “From Russia With…” but that might not last.

Quite often, stories I have written quite a few years back are still looking for an appropriate title, and three in particular that I wrote as a trilogy suddenly found themselves with titles after I read a series of Robert Ludlum novels and noted how he titled his stories.

The bottom line is that sometimes finding the right title is like creating the right cover, and then editing.

More about my story

…

Is this one of those moments where it is a good thing he has a partner, and a bad thing that she is a woman?

We all know pain killers and alcohol at a bad mix, and trying to ward off the despondency of messing up what could have been a useful interrogation, he drinks too much, makes a pass at the partner and fails miserably at achieving anything but collapsing on the floor.

She is amused.  And annoyed he took matters into his own hands.

Of course, there are questions to answer, like,

Why did he go back and tackle the men who, as he said, were acting suspiciously?  Firstly, the police inspector and then, with a lot more suspicion and threatening behaviour, the head of the secret police.

Yes, a man in the street type would not be talking about anything, especially when he knew there were suspicious types, like the rebels, around.

Who is he, then, to be doing this?

Nosey reporter, very nosey reporter, with a little too much devil may care, ergo the bullet wound.

But if you want the story, you need to take the risks.

The inspector wants to know how there was an exchange of gunfire, without saying that the rebels didn’t shoot at each other, and he simply says he was shot, it was a shock, and by the time I got over the shock of it, they were gone.

After all, if he was complicit, where was the gun?

More about my story

…

Is this one of those moments where it is a good thing he has a partner, and a bad thing that she is a woman?

We all know pain killers and alcohol at a bad mix, and trying to ward off the despondency of messing up what could have been a useful interrogation, he drinks too much, makes a pass at the partner and fails miserably at achieving anything but collapsing on the floor.

She is amused.  And annoyed he took matters into his own hands.

Of course, there are questions to answer, like,

Why did he go back and tackle the men who, as he said, were acting suspiciously?  Firstly, the police inspector and then, with a lot more suspicion and threatening behaviour, the head of the secret police.

Yes, a man in the street type would not be talking about anything, especially when he knew there were suspicious types, like the rebels, around.

Who is he, then, to be doing this?

Nosey reporter, very nosey reporter, with a little too much devil may care, ergo the bullet wound.

But if you want the story, you need to take the risks.

The inspector wants to know how there was an exchange of gunfire, without saying that the rebels didn’t shoot at each other, and he simply says he was shot, it was a shock, and by the time I got over the shock of it, they were gone.

After all, if he was complicit, where was the gun?

Day 94

Honesty in writing – can there be too much, as in writing an autobiography?

…

To me there’s honesty and there’s truth.

I read autobiographies and biographies, but there are recollections laced with factual surrounding events. However, quite often, a lot of these events can be taken with a grain of salt.

I do it myself. I tell the truth, but it’s the embellishment that makes events grander, or the strategic omissions that make it larger or smaller than life.

The more embellishment, the better the sales. Everyone wants to read about heroes, people who get things done, and sometimes just to read the other side of the story.

Fiction, though, requires no semblance of the truth, and when weaving it with real events, it’s always a good idea not to try and improve on or demean people who were real and involved. I’m always weaving real places and real events into historical stories, and I work very hard to understand the people, the places, and the events.

And just remember not to make people you know too identifiable in your stories.

As for my autobiography, it will be better than the life I wish I could lead in my books, because 300 pages of utterly boring stuff will not sell.

Day 94

Honesty in writing – can there be too much, as in writing an autobiography?

…

To me there’s honesty and there’s truth.

I read autobiographies and biographies, but there are recollections laced with factual surrounding events. However, quite often, a lot of these events can be taken with a grain of salt.

I do it myself. I tell the truth, but it’s the embellishment that makes events grander, or the strategic omissions that make it larger or smaller than life.

The more embellishment, the better the sales. Everyone wants to read about heroes, people who get things done, and sometimes just to read the other side of the story.

Fiction, though, requires no semblance of the truth, and when weaving it with real events, it’s always a good idea not to try and improve on or demean people who were real and involved. I’m always weaving real places and real events into historical stories, and I work very hard to understand the people, the places, and the events.

And just remember not to make people you know too identifiable in your stories.

As for my autobiography, it will be better than the life I wish I could lead in my books, because 300 pages of utterly boring stuff will not sell.

Day 93

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

…

Perhaps not in the beginning, but as time passed, yes.

In my younger years, as an awkward child who didn’t fare well in school, with the sort of boys who treated the weaker kids with aggression, and at home where we were victims of domestic violence, it became necessary to immerse myself in another world than the one that I lived in.

That’s when I began to invent different lives, mostly generated from reading books morning, noon and night and spending any spare time in the school library, anywhere other than in the schoolyard.

Those books fuelled my imagination. I could be anyone else other than who I was, go anywhere, and do anything. The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Biggles, Billy Bunter, all those characters that today would never get a fair chance.

Soon, those imaginings became scribbles, and the first story I wrote was one of a spy landing on a distant beach in another country and executing a mission which, when I look back, was rather strange, but it kept me busy.

Then a thousand or so books later, fuelled by Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, David Baldacci, and countless others, I improved my writing skills, the story became more focussed and less childish, and I decided thrillers were the go.

And when romance didn’t seem to work out all that well, I decided to write myself into one, imagining how it would be. For that, I devoured a few Mills and Boons, but when it came time to write a similar story, it got half way then veered into thriller territory.

I think, in that first effort, I was not the hero, but the forever tired, always battling to stay alive and discovering the love of his life, found ways they could not be together. A bit like real life at times.

My latest effort, I used to read stories for my grandchildren, and then foolishly one night told her I would write a better fair tale. After 11 years, much toiling and excuses for not having it done, I have finished it. 3 volumes, 1,000 plus pages, it is an epic.

Did I always want to be a writer?

Maybe I did and just didn’t realise it back when I was too young to know.

Day 93

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

…

Perhaps not in the beginning, but as time passed, yes.

In my younger years, as an awkward child who didn’t fare well in school, with the sort of boys who treated the weaker kids with aggression, and at home where we were victims of domestic violence, it became necessary to immerse myself in another world than the one that I lived in.

That’s when I began to invent different lives, mostly generated from reading books morning, noon and night and spending any spare time in the school library, anywhere other than in the schoolyard.

Those books fuelled my imagination. I could be anyone else other than who I was, go anywhere, and do anything. The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Biggles, Billy Bunter, all those characters that today would never get a fair chance.

Soon, those imaginings became scribbles, and the first story I wrote was one of a spy landing on a distant beach in another country and executing a mission which, when I look back, was rather strange, but it kept me busy.

Then a thousand or so books later, fuelled by Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, David Baldacci, and countless others, I improved my writing skills, the story became more focussed and less childish, and I decided thrillers were the go.

And when romance didn’t seem to work out all that well, I decided to write myself into one, imagining how it would be. For that, I devoured a few Mills and Boons, but when it came time to write a similar story, it got half way then veered into thriller territory.

I think, in that first effort, I was not the hero, but the forever tired, always battling to stay alive and discovering the love of his life, found ways they could not be together. A bit like real life at times.

My latest effort, I used to read stories for my grandchildren, and then foolishly one night told her I would write a better fair tale. After 11 years, much toiling and excuses for not having it done, I have finished it. 3 volumes, 1,000 plus pages, it is an epic.

Did I always want to be a writer?

Maybe I did and just didn’t realise it back when I was too young to know.