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Thursday 24 February 2011

Edit Hits a Highspot

Neil OliverImage via WikipediaToday, I finished at chapter 43, page 418 and discovered, quite unexpectedly, this was a place I could end the first volume. All three threads of the interwoven story come to natural ends, of one sort or another, at this point and all end with the knowledge that there must be more to come, almost on cliff-hangers, in fact.
Of course, this means I'll have to now write an introductory chapter for book 2 before I can properly continue with the edit. It also means I'll have to merge part of the old volume 2 with this new version, but that brings the completion of volume 2 that much nearer, which is good, since I intend to start looking for agents/publishers only when I have both of the first 2 books ready to offer.
On the way, this afternoon, I found a way to incorporate some of the historical information I'd gleaned from the BBC's history documentary I have been following, A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver. By pure good fortune, in the episode we'd recorded from last night, I also discovered a fact about funeral pyres that meant I had to modify part of the penultimate chapter to make it more credible. It was relatively easily done, but without that knowledge, I might well have ended up with egg on my face. So, thank you Neil for your experiment. Just goes to show: research can always be improved upon, no matter how thorough you think you've been.
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2 comments:

Jack Eason said...

Here, here Stuart. I find highly informative programs like Neil Oliver's current excellent programme 'A History of Ancient Britain' a great source of handy titbits when I'm researching for my current literary project(s).

stuartaken.net said...

Yes, I watch only very selectively. The documentaries can be full of new information - I'm enjoying the current 'Human Planet' as well, as it takes me places I'd never be able to visit. Great stuff.