Hello, my friends and the occasional relative!

I did not remain in editing hell, my friends, though I am grateful I visited, because I fixed two small issues that came out on the multiple repeated passes I made as I chased some words and phrases through the text. In short controlled bursts. One would have made a reader ask a question and not get an answer (and those are the worst), the other was fixing a line of sight, something which had been more vague a few iterations ago, but after I corrected a descriptive passage recently, the knock on effect was that a later highly dramatic moment needed two lines altered to match. Much better for that whole scene to be more physically anchored than it had been before.

So, as mentioned last week, it is time for another proof read. I have printed the book out, and will run through it marking in pencil, and then my wife will wield her red pen. Proofing in another medium is very useful. And I will then assess the changes, and probably incorporate most of them. And though I could continue to endlessly tinker, I’m going to stop. It just is what it is at this stage. Time for me to let the public, my tiny sliver of it at least, to come to their own conclusions.

I’m pleased with what I’ve created. I always intended it to include a slave discussing, and fighting for freedom. It became so much more interesting than that, as it also became about faith versus ego, about desire and ambition, about love and living in a culture very different from the one I inhabit, and how actions would have very different consequences there than they would here.

It is a stand-alone novel, but has links to my earlier books, which will be pretty clear for those who have read them, but not necessary at all to understanding and following the drama unfolding in this story. That I think has been handled quite well.

I know I’ve put this one to bed now because my mind has turned almost completely to the next book, reworking my intentions there, changing the opening beyond one key scene, new ideas to deepen character and interpersonal relationships, with the realization that once you do that, those relationships need to continue to have an effect, and be pulled upon later in the story, which was not within the original scope of my thin outline. A new more detailed plot outline will need to be drawn up before I start trying to break the book down into scenes and chapters, along with separate character maps and development arcs, and work out how to integrate all of those things together, whilst still leaving room for spontaneity, because I now know I always come up with new ‘brilliant’ ideas as I write. Some work, others are so much better when still in my head and somehow lose all their power once put on the page, unseen deficiencies suddenly glaring once the idea has to start playing with all the others already at large in the manuscript. <– That might sound tedious, but it is actually awesome. But there is no doubt, writing a long coherent work of fiction is not a simple undertaking. If my description of putting various pieces together sounds mechanistic, I understand, but it feels strenuously creative as it is being done, pulling vague ideas into concrete realities, impressionistic feelings into solid emotion. It’s the first heavy lift of getting a book written, and one I find increasingly necessary.   

Here is to coherence my friends, and tilting at windmills.