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Kathleen McGurl

~ Where past and present collide…

Kathleen McGurl

Tag Archives: editing

The next novel has been printed!

02 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

editing, Writing

On Saturday I finally finished the first draft of my next novel. It needs a fair bit of work to whip it into shape, but from this point on I’m editing rather than first-drafting. I feel more than ready for this change of tempo – it uses different parts of your brain and I am kind of looking forward to it.

I say ‘kind of’, because that first read through is a terrifying prospect. What if it’s rubbish? What if the plot doesn’t hang together and the prose is dull and lifeless, and the characters are unlikeable and inconsistent?

When I am writing a first draft I try to keep forward momentum going at all times, and never go back to edit. If I write something which will require a tweak or addition in an earlier chapter I just write myself a note and keep going. Otherwise I know I would never reach the end. This method works for me but does mean there can be quite a lot to tackle in the first edit – the one I must do before I let anyone at all read it.

Anyway, just now I printed off the entire novel. I will read it through with a red pen in hand and scribble notes as I go. Then I’ll get going on the edits. Deadline is Christmas. Wish me luck!

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The genesis of my novella

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

books, editing, self-publishing, Writing

I didn’t set out to write a Regency romance novella. Not at all. I set out, way back in 2010, to write a full length novel. This was to be my practice novel, my prove-I-can-stick-at-it novel, my must-reach-the-end novel. I just wanted to write 80,000 words or more, then edit them into some sort of shape. I’d tried and failed at a couple of novels years back, and this time, wanted to show myself I could do it if I really tried.

I’d been researching my family tree, and had come across some characters who fascinated me. When I could no longer find out any more about them I decided to fill in the blanks via fiction. This, I thought, could become a novel. I knew even as I wrote it that it was possibly only of interest to me and my immediate family, but I wasn’t trying to write a commercial novel – I was just trying to complete something of novel length. Didn’t matter what.

So I wrote it, edited it, got some professional feedback on it (which said nice things like I was good at dialogue, my characters were well formed and developed well, I had some nice description which made the settings come alive; and also said what I already knew – that the novel was not commercial as it stood and would need a complete restructuring if I wanted to do anything more with it), and then I put the novel away. Its job was done – I’d written and edited 80,000 words. Gave myself a pat on the back for that.

So with that novel under my belt I went ahead and wrote another, this one 93,000 words, knowing I was capable of it, and having learned a lot about how to structure long fiction, and how I personally like to write. This one ended up far more commercial, and one agent nearly took it on last year. Nearly, but sadly not quite near enough. 😦 Anyway, onwards ever onwards – I’m now mid-way through a third.

But, those characters from my first novel kept nagging me. There was a large section in the middle which was basically a love triangle. What if, I thought, I chopped off the irrelevant beginning and the boring end, cut out superfluous characters and unnecessary plot strands, and strengthened what was left? Would that make a book in its own right?

It was a wonderful lesson in major editing. I hacked and chopped and pruned, then added a new first chapter and tidied the end, then rewrote the entire thing. It was great fun to do. I ended up with 50,000 words and a story which hung together nicely. And is STILL based on my family history research, although I changed the surnames of the main characters.

My lovely son created a cover for it, and I published it a couple of weeks ago, as Mr Cavell’s Diamond. Those who’ve read it seem to like it, judging by the reviews. So that makes it all worth while.

And the lesson is – never, ever throw anything away. Nothing you write need ever be wasted. You never know when you might come up with the perfect way to use some of your early scribblings!

 

 

Busy busy busy

23 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

editing, projects, Writing

So sorry that it’s been over a month since I updated this blog. I would say I’ve had no time, but if you’ve read my post Time To Write you’ll know that really means I’ve not been motivated enough to blog. Which sounds terrible put like that, doesn’t it? *blushes*

I have, however, been hard at work on several writing projects. Back in January I blogged about having too many projects, and I couldn’t decide which to get on with. I ended up working on three of them. Here’s an update:

1. Print versions of my How To books. This project is now complete, and very soon the print books will be available to buy from Amazon and other online outlets. Watch this space – I’ll let you know when they’re up! I’ve extended both books, uploaded a new ebook version (already available) and spent far longer than I expected getting the formatting right. I’ll do a post soon on Lessons Learned.

2. Regency romance novella based on part of my first novel. I had lots of fun with this. I extracted the middle 50,000 words from my novel, reshaped, removed a few characters, rewrote large sections. It’s far from finished but it reached the stage where a second opinion would be worthwhile, and two lovely writer-friends offered to read it for me. It’s now out with them.

3. With the print project complete and the novella project on hold awaiting feedback, that’s left me with my main WIP. I’ve been adding to it slowly this year, and I’m now about half way through the story. It’s coming up a bit short on word count – I’m hoping it’ll end up at 90,000 but at the moment is heading towards around 80,000 – but I won’t worry about that until I have the first draft written. I’m back ‘full time’ on that project now, and have spent this weekend writing a critical mid-novel scene.

Him indoors is still often asking how I’m getting on with my psychological thriller, the one he really wants to read. So I guess I’d better do that one next!

I’d always thought I was a one-project woman. With limited writing time I need to crack on and make the most of it. But actually I have found recently that I get more done if there’s more than one project on the go, at different stages. If I’m not feeling creative I can turn to the editing or formatting project and get on with that. If I’m cross-eyed from proof-reading it’s a refreshing change to do some first-drafting, where it doesn’t matter how you spell or punctuate, as long as you get the words written.

So when I get the feedback on the regency romance, I can use that one as the editing project if I’m not feeling first-drafty. It’s a good mix, and I think I’ll try to always have more than one novel on the go now.

Do you like to work on one thing at a time, or do you have many things on the go at once?

 

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