Category: editing

Admit when you’re wrong

On By TomIn Achievement, author honesty, author ideas, beta readers, editing, General, Insight, killing your darlings, Novel, reading, relaxation, Review, self-publishing, thriller, work in progress, writing

For a few months, I’ve been working simultaneously on different projects. This has always been an effective way for me to keep the ideas and words flowing, therefore avoiding the dreaded writer’s block. My method has a drawback that I’ve only experienced twice before, but it happened recently.

Whilst on a caravanning holiday in the Scottish Highlands, I reread MacLennan from the beginning, and found that although I’d produced lots of words, the story I’d created wouldn’t have captured and held the attention of a reader. I removed and saved approximately 20,000 words to a folder designated for that purpose, and then I began reworking the remainder.

Over a period of ten days, during early morning sessions and occasional hours spent sitting in the awning, I applied myself to injecting more intrigue, suspense, and action, and the words flowed once again. Like many of you other scribes out there, I know when the story feels ‘right’, and I’m pleased to say that in its new format, MacLennan is in that category.

Yes, we must all have self-belief, but we must all be brutally honest with ourselves. We must utilise beta readers, editors, and anyone else recommended for guidance and the polishing of a tale. It remains, however, our responsibility as authors to produce our best efforts at each stage.

It’s vitally important to admit when you’re wrong.

I now have 50,000 words, and I’m comfortable with the new characters, those being reintroduced, and the pace, which is crucial in such a story. The action works, and so do the occasional breathing spaces, so I feel I have another viable thriller in the making. It may or may not be ready for publication by the end of the year, but I’m in no rush.

I’ll give plenty of notice in the IASD group on Facebook with an approximate date for when I’d appreciate beta readers.

If you’d like a flavour of the story, here is a link to Chapter 1, The Invisible Man.

As always, comments are welcome. Thank you for visiting.

McLennan – the first chapter

On By TomIn Achievement, author ideas, editing, General, Insight, Novel, reading, thriller, work in progress, writing1 Comment

When we review another author’s work, many of us might suggest that it could have been longer, or in the case of anthologies, a particular story might work as a novel. When fellow author Barbara Speake reviewed Shadow: and other stories, she hoped that a particular story would get such attention.

That time has come, and I’m pleased to announce that, after much procrastination, my new story, McLennan is underway. I reread Resettlement to refresh myself on the main character. I wrote the first chapter of the new book rapidly, not stopping to change anything so that I could maintain my creative flow.

I reread the chapter, moved the third paragraph up to make it the intro, and introduced some dialogue to break up the narrative. After that session, I left the story and did some baking. On my return, I reread the chapter and amended the dialogue. It’s probably not close to where it will be in two months. However, where I ended it had catapulted me into the second chapter, so the story will now be with me during every waking minute until I write passages and snippets of dialogue as they occur to me.

There will be a brief foreword in the book to explain that it’s fictional and that the first chapter is loosely based on recent history. If you’d like to read and comment on the first chapter, please click The Invisible Man.

I sincerely thank my regular readers for choosing and supporting my brand. If you’re new to my writing, I hope you’ll soon become one of my valued readers. Thank you for checking out my blog.