Simple things...

I haven't blogged for a while – the reason being my submission for my MA.  We have to give in 40,000 words on 30th September and although I've had it ready for weeks now, I've been reading and re-reading it for the past two weeks, driving myself slightly round the bend.  I began to know the words off by heart almost, which is a danger in itself, as you then miss blindingly obvious mistakes, typos, etc.  But...I've now printed it out and I feel I've done all I can to it.

I've also printed out the entire novel.  I was very impressed with my printer, which just seemed to churn it out without making an issue out of it.  I'd convinced myself that it would run out of ink, chew up the paper and do everything possible to annoy me, but everything went smoothly and I now have a huge pile of printed sheets sitting in front of me.  I can't believe that I've written so much – I know it's quality not quantity, but I'm still impressed with myself!  Whether I will be, when I've read it all through, is another matter.  It seems to take on a different substance when you read something on the page, rather than on the screen.  It's much easier to see mistakes for a start, but it's more than that – it becomes something separate, something tangible; on the screen, it's just an extension of your fingers.

I'm planning to go through the entire novel now looking for typos and other simple mistakes, but also trying to make sure that my protagonist's emotional landscape has some sort of coherence.  This is so easy to talk about, but so difficult to do.  I thought that I'd done it, but my tutor at Bath Spa has told me I haven't achieved it yet – I'm using the close third person narrative but I've got to get inside her head more – otherwise the reader won't be able to identify with her and empathise with her.  I think, and hope that it's just a question of tweaking rather than re-writing.  Time will tell...

So, thank you for reading my blog.  I hope it finds you well and if you are writing, like me, I hope you have achieved something today!

Just printing the novel out seems like an achievement to me today.  Simple things...

Every word counts....

Aphrodite's Rock from a new perspective

Well, I haven't written a blog for a while – time seems to be passing far too quickly.  At the end of this month, 30th September to be precise, I have to produce 40,000 words for my MA.  This isn't a problem really as I have 130,000 words to choose from, but it feels like a like a lot of words to have absolutely perfect.  

I've re-read this 40,000 piece and edited it four times now.  Is there a time when you can be a hundred per cent satisfied with a piece of writing?  I don't think so – the more you look, the more you think you could improve it.  It's the same with photography when you edit a picture.  The more you stare at it on the computer screen, the worse it gets.  So, you have to simply say at some point, "Right – that's enough.  I can't do any more," and let it go.

We have to print the piece out twice – that's a hell of a lot of paper and ink – so I've got to be pretty certain that it's perfect.

But then, something I've learnt on this MA is that EVERY word in a novel has to be perfect – not just this 40,000 words, or the first page, or the first three chapters. 

 EVERY word counts.  That's something I found hard to get my head round when I started.  Surely that's not true for a novel, I thought?  But the more you write, the more you realise that each word has an impact.  The choice you make changes the sentence – and where it is in the sentence makes a difference.  How it relates to the other words alters the sense.  

So, you see, when it comes down to it, 40,000 words isn't the problem – every word is the problem. 

 It puts the MA into perspective.