LEARNING ON THE JOB

Current Work: Editing Novel, Non Fiction Article
Listening to: The whirring of my laptop
Reading: Shadows in the Wind

The Red Editing Pen
As you probably know (sometimes I think its just the ether I'm speaking to out there, and it probably is as I'm sure that no-one reads this damn thing. Thats another action to put on my list. Publicise this blog!!) I am in the process of editing my first novel. All 80,000 words of it. Words of which are written in four journals (A4 hard back style) and one ring binder file. Written over the past three years. It's no small wonder I'm finding it very difficult to say the least. I'm soon finding out where the inconsistencies jump out at me. Where I've repeated and repeated and repeated the same thing. Where I've said a character is going to do somehting and then doesn't. Where the time seems to change in the blink of an eyelid. I could go on, and I probably will at a later date, but this isn't as exciting as writing the first pure words. But then I knew that. I've just got to get on with it and get it done - in the words of my Man Friday. So what on earth am I doing here then?

Halfway House
Well, halfway through the week and as you can see I'm struggling witht the editing. I've dedicated this month to getting it finished but I do need to distract myself with other things or I might go quite mad. I've published this weeks article on Suite 101. A short bio of Dr Seuss. Quite fascinating, the things you find out about people and things when you write about them. I've also threatened my other half with nasty things if he doesn't keep to our deadline for our joint effort on The Good Life (a working title for our Flit Lit book). So he's in the office at the moment - I can hear him coughing as he poises over the keyboard - tapping away. And, yes there is more, and I have to outline my next novel which is again about World War II but set in Italy. But that is this months work. Not this weeks. I've also got some hopes for a short story submission but that may need to be shelved. One thing at a time.

And Finally...
I'm going to use my final paragraph for a bit of harmless fun and experiementation I don't know what this will mean, but for now it means Useless Facts About Writers.

Q: What child actress brought a libel suite agaisnt British Author Grahame Greene?

A: Shirley Temple. He wrote a review of one of her films accusing the angel look alike of indecency!