Saturday, July 30, 2011

Coming Up For Air...in Cornwall

I have been to Italy to celebrate my twentieth wedding anniversary...fabulous.








I am now happily ensconced at home in Cornwall. In order to keep the troops happy I am waking a five and working straight through until eleven or twelve when they wake up...(the joy of being a carefree teenager) and doing it with no internet (withdrawal is painful).

But this is not normally how I work and at times I've thought my brain would explode from trying to think things through without the usual breaks - cleaning (the house is a tip but don't tell anyone), shopping (beans on toast again), and the internet (so no posts, not much twitter or Facebook).

My editor has asked for some pretty substantial changes in the first half of the book. Remember my post over at The Heroine Addicts on Knitting...Well remaking the pattern with the right tension and pacing has to be honest been brutal. I used my notes on the wonderful Julie Cohen's session on the Pacing Is Not Just Something You Do In Jimmy Choos. She did this at the RNA Conference in 2008 (my report is here but her blog has a wealth of information on pacing - just type pacing into the research box and you hit the jackpot).

The first half is done...not perfect yet...fine tuning is yet to come. But I can now look at the book as a whole unit again and see that it works. In the process I have written about 20,000 new words and deleted even more. Somehow I have 'lost' five chapters...and some of my favourite scenes but it does seem to be holding together and I hope better for all the work. For the moment I will continue to weave the changes through the rest of the book then listen to the whole thing....It's good that the house is so quiet at 5 am.

This is what my afternoons and evenings have been made up of...

10 comments:

Jan Jones said...

Good luck with the rest of it, hon.

Unknown said...

Thank Jan...I'll need it.
lx

Sue Guiney said...

It all looks blissful. I wish I could force myself to get up at 5, but I just can't. You're a wonder!

catdownunder said...

I am both envious and terrified for you - does that make sense?

Unknown said...

Sue - not a wonder but desperate not to ruin my time with the kids :-)

Yes, Cat it does!

lx

Joanna Cannon said...

I'm so looking forward to reading your book! I don't have the pressure of editors and rewrites, but I do find it easier to write in the early hours, when my mind is slightly less cluttered. Good luck! x

Unknown said...

Sweetie - good luck. I know you can do it!

I am also keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds until I get there.

CL Taylor said...

OOoh I can SO relate to the brutal editing/rewriting process. It ranges from the hideous ('Stuck, stuck, STUCK! How the HELL do I get from scene C to scene D now?') to the euphoric ('Yes! That totally works, it's even better than the original idea') and there's nothing I can say to help you apart from 'head down and carry on, it'll be worth it in the end!' x

Teresa F Morgan said...

Wow - 20 years! You don't look old enough!

Not sure I could get up at 5.00am to write... I admire you. I tend to like writing in the evening (or during the day when the kids aren't about). I must be a night owl. Write late, lay in in the morning ;-)

Good luck with the book.

Unknown said...

Thanks Biddy.

Cally - heads down is the only thing that got me through but I'm still so close to it I don't know if it works!

Teresa - I can't work late at night. I find people different work rhythms fascinating...we all do what we must.

lx