Creative Time

 

Horrible weather, shortening days, noisy fireworks – yes, we could be quite miserable. But it is the prime plotting time of the year. From October onwards, it is easier to sit down by the computer and weave stories.

For me, this year is about the nitty gritty of finalising a project. I’ve been the writer with a drawer full of stories. They had ‘The End’ written at the end, which made them real. Everybody can start a story, right? How many of us finish it? The projects waited their turn. I am the type of person who doesn’t like to see unfinished things. I take the stories out in turn and I am turning them into books with covers and numbered pages and real life. One by one they fly out of the nest.

My fourth book reached the stage of proof copy and during the last few weeks, I was slowly reading it through, making notes. Editing is a slow process and it is hardly ever truly done. I have to decide at some stage that the text is as good as I can make it and I have to let it go. Otherwise, I could sit here forever, agonising over comas, word choices, and – my nemesis – past perfect or past or past present tense goes here???

Monday was a day with no bookings in my real job, a relatively low level of stuff to do around the house and, a silent hurray, the first day of school after half term. I was fussing a little, but eventually, I was sitting down, checking my notes, and making changes, mostly in agreement with my inner critic. It is tedious work. I need to make sure that I don’t omit anything, don’t make additional mistakes, keep the flow of words right and generally improve the story. It isn’t as much fun as other stages of writing, but I am now at the stage where I polish the gem, I can see how it reflects light, where the spark is, and how the jewel will look in its final form. It is slow but extremely rewarding.

This story was drafted in 2019, had a bit of a rest, and came back to me this year. Considering that it is much shorter than my previous two books, I thought it would be an easy journey and I would finish it swiftly. But I didn’t rush it, had to fit it around other things in my life that had to be done, so I am still not finished and I most likely won’t publish two books in one year. Doesn’t matter. Time is the least measurable success in the writing journey. Rushing words isn’t wise.

I finished the fixes on Tuesday and then the book went to sleep. Time issues, as usual. I will give it one more read-through. And then, the world will be ready for my new story. I’ve found out that editing is easier when things change a little. After the first draft, a simple read-through with lots of notes and changes is the best option. When the story feels done, printing it out and seeing it on paper brings out many things that the screen doesn’t reveal so well. After that, reading aloud, however mad I may seem, is another trick that brings out repetitions, sentences that don’t work, and some last, cheeky typos. After all of that, I usually grow tired of the story and don’t want to read it again. So I take a bit of a break. This year, I was lucky, this time came just around summer and since it was our first European trip in a while, I could simply go and have a holiday. Then there were a few weeks of mad working and no chance to write at all…

I sat down to formatting, ordered a proof copy and had the read-through that culminated in this week’s work. Even though I have printed the story before, seeing it as a book and reading it as a book brings it again into a new light and makes the process easier and smoother. We are writers at the end of the day – we love working with books. I hope that the next print will be a proper book, ready to find its readers and that the hard work that had gone into creating it will be appreciated. My line editor (yellow bird) and critique partner (white bird) whose photo adorns this post will eagerly await feedback for their hard work.