Goodness gracious me! It’s been nearly a year since I last mused about my writing odyssey. In that time, however, I’ve been persevering on the editing front, which feels rather more like a hiatus than actual writing.
I’ve had the most bracing editorial advice from about February, when my mentoring programme thanks to the Wigtown Book Festival Trust’s 2024 Compass Programme began, which at first set me back, and made me wonder if I could really persevere. But in the end I did brace myself, took myself in hand and tried to grapple with my kind mentor’s/editor’s recommendations. The shock came when I tried, with great alacrity, to accommodate the advice, only to have my ms attempts returned with a metaphorical shake of the head, and an admonition to try harder.
The result has been a more naturalistic and, I hope, more believable series of motivational beginnings, for my two protagonists. The title has changed, from Keep Me in Your Heart, to From Silenced Voices, and I’ve revisited the prototype artwork (which is straight from Chat-GPT now), as well as revising my sense of the genre the novel is inhabiting (General Fiction, apparently). And then, as I carried on through the ms, under my own steam after the scrutiny of my first four chapters, I felt myself succumbing yet again to a kind of ‘easily pleased’ sensibility. Time will tell if I’ve come closer to a presentable, publishable novel on this my fourth attempt (and as many attempts to edit it usefully), but my personal editing is as finished as I feel I can make it.
My next step will be to seek a comprehensive, professional edit of the whole ms, which may well be another setback. After investing the necessary financial component on this quest, and gaining expert feedback, I may be able to recover again — all things are possible — or it may be that I shall need to embark anew on another novel, trying to incorporate all of the lessons I’ve learned from this past effort, and do better from the get-go.
To that end, perhaps I shall seek to join another writers group, one of peer writers who are also struggling through their next novel. I’m beginning to see how a set of novelists who may know, or are earnestly learning their craft, can support each other in their quest, from the beginning of their novel’s odyssey through to its successful completion. It’s not, ultimately, that I expect to gain a publisher, or the imprimatur of ‘being published’ though that is an ever-present ambition. No, it’s that the novel I want to produce should be presentable, should be ‘publish-able‘ even if it doesn’t manage to attract the interest of any agent or press.
As I work towards this new goal, I’m pleased to have both a talisman again (the embroidered postcard kept me going in KMiYH) and the first chapter, or scene from the first chapter, to be conjuring with.
Biome NE47 