Back to the Book

For the last six months of 2008 I was busy with two tasks: getting my novel Companion to Owls from page to print to the public, and working on the project I'll be submitting for my MA this summer. We also went on holiday. All these took all my time and energy and caused me to abandon the novel I was half way through.



But I returned to it three days ago with warm interest. The first thing I did was to read it from a hard copy. If I have access to the screen I stop reading and begin to edit, which is no good if I want an overview. So, I came at it with new eyes and read it straight through, making only small notes in the margin.



Overall, I was quietly satisfied with it and I'm now on a second re-read, but this time I'm working on the screen and, using my notes, making small changes as I go along.



To my delight, the book is already running around in my head as busily as it was six months ago. I've thought of how to develop parts of the plot and several of the characters, how to move towards the end, how to shift the mood in certain places. I've decided to make some cuts and changes, to give a character a different name, to get to grips with the chronology of it, to list various technical details I need to check on, and so on. This is a familiar process to me by now and it's reassuring that it's proceeding as I hoped it would.



Right now I feel I could work on it for a solid fortnight, but I can't do this not only because there are other things to be done but also because I know the text is better if it's written a bit at a time. I've learned that gaps like this six months - though six days or even six hours would help - make a very positive difference. In those gaps the book simmers away in my head with or without me consciously thinking about it, and something good comes out of it. Usually this means the quality of the writing is better, but sometimes I realise what doesn't work so I end up deleting.



So, right now I'm around 67,000 words in. I'll keep you posted.