THE BLACK PEN AND THE HIGHLIGHTER.

I sat at my desk, primed and  ready to take the next step on the road to completing my first novel - the read through of my first completed draft. I was very organized. In front of me lay two folders – one for Strand A, one for Strand B - two sets of index cards, a black pen (I decided against the red – I didn’t want to depress myself too much) and a yellow highlighter.

          I had decided to use a few key words to note the changes I wanted – expand, rework or my favourite UAW.  UAW = use another word and is my own code for when I don’t like the word currently in place or I notice I’ve repeated a word too many times – and if I see another sentence that says ‘he/she/they seemed...I’ll scream! 

         My intention was to address issues as I went along but I was primarily interested in gaining a sense of how each strand hangs together as a whole. Other questions I had were about characters, mood, and finding out what were the plot weaknesses and inconsistencies.

       

         And so it was, with no small amount of trepidation, that I started to read strand A.

         What I’ve found - apart from the fact that reading and noting the mistakes is way easier than correcting them – is that punctuation and grammar seem (you see, there’s that word creeping into my blog as well) okay but there are a quite a number of places where I need to either tighten up the sentence structure or expand it to clarify what I’m saying. The pace of the story, in both strands, seems (wow, I just can’t stop using that word) fairly fast and I need to make sure I allow both readers and characters the space to breathe along the way before galloping towards the climax and conclusion as I dislike a story that has no rhythm and drags you relentlessly towards the end.

         I found one character who definitely needs some upgrading. He is vital to the story and he’s meant to be interesting but the truth is I've not given him the TLC he really needs. And it shows; he’s far too nice and therefore, boring.

          I used the highlighter for noting plot inconsistencies such as when a character expects his children to return that afternoon – er, well, no, he shouldn’t – they returned 2 chapters ago. Didn’t he notice? I thought I had picked up and sorted all the issues in this area, but it’s interesting to note that some escaped what I thought was my previously eagle eye. Let’s hope I found the last offenders.

       So, it’s with a sigh of satisfaction, and a real sense of progress, that I put aside my piles of white paper which are now covered with black scribbles and yellow marks. Trying to create something, working at it and not being satisfied till you have achieved the best you can, is both painstaking and deeply satisfying.

        On Monday, I’ll begin rewriting.

COFFEE SHOP HAIKU

The conversation

is punctuated by her

laughter and his texts.

Thank you for reading my blog - I hope you enjoy the journey too.

A really great  read is  Roads Taken by M. Joaquim at the Kindle Store.  Here's the link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/  Check it out!

 

I'm going to rotate the links to other writers I find helpful. One newsletter I subscribe to, where there are plenty of good tips and information, is:

http://www.urbanwritersretreat.co.uk/ 

And I found Mark Coker's no nonsense, gives you the truth about publishing, blog really informative. 

http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/03/six-tips-to-read-reader-tea-leaves-how.htm

Another valuable book is How Fiction Works by James Wood which has lots of insights to help you with your writing. 

For all book lovers out there, I wish you good reading and for those of you who write, good writing.