The Joy of editing

Getting back to Fail Better and the editing process. The first edit took until the middle of February 2011. My journal is full of red ink indicating what needs to be added, corrected and taken out. There are also big ticks confirming I have made the changes.

The second edit started almost immediately with extra description throughout, and making more of what is happening with other people in Hexham when Judith isn’t present. I also added a ‘guilty secret’ to Chloe’s character – well, we all have one, haven’t we?

I’m not sure when this happened but someone asked me whether I based characters on people I know. I said no, but then thought ‘why not?’ My friend Tanya www.fearlessfeat.co.uk is petite and bright and I decided to make Chloe look and behave a bit like her (the similarity ends there, Tan, honest!) I have also named some of the characters after people I know. D.S. Doggart is a thank you to Lou for her kindness, faith and support – and loads of information.

Four edits done at the time of posting this so surely it is time to approach suitable agents? Watch this space.

3 months later . . . . . . .

Hello everyone. Another fresh start with the blog. Things have moved on so much since I wrote the blog that to go back and take up the story seems a bit retrospective.  Suffice to say that ‘Fail Better’ (current title) stands at 85 000 words and I have started to approach agents.

I have picked out some bits from my notes from my journal. On one session at Mungrisdale Writers (www.mungrisdalewriters.org.uk) our tutor asked us to list ten books that had significance to us personally or as writers. These were mine:

·         A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth – because I love it

·         Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – a book from the point of view of men

·         A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – a book from the point of view of women

·         Engleby by Sebastian Faulks – fairly unpleasant and weird but compelling (had a huge influence on my writing)

·         Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller – for similar reasons to Engleby

·         The poem Lines and Squares from When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne – it’s to do with a teenage love affair – don’t ask

·         Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers – because it changed the way I thought about moving out of my comfort zone

·         The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard – people look after their own monkeys now!

·         The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot – I cried for days at the shock ending

·         Haweswater by Sarah Hall – because they don’t all need a happy ending

Since then I would add Girl Reading by Katie Ward www.katieward.co.uk – just because it’s fab and so is she. READ IT.

Which ten would you choose?