Writing: 2600 Words This Afternoon

Half day at the office and home in time for lunch before Valerie zooms off to her bowls match (which, by the way, her team won). 2600 new words and another new aspect to the story. How I enjoy this creative process, when the words just pour out onto the page. But that doesn't mean the editing, which for me is a second stage thing to be done entirely separately, is a chore. The way I write involves me in composing action scenes, dialogue and anything that moves the story on. I neglect most of the descriptive stuff during this phase. I know what the scene looks like; it's there in my head. But, when I'm editing, I need to let the reader in on the way the places look, smell, feel, sound etc. And I need to let the reader share the emotions of the characters. So, I add this at the first editing stage and this makes that into another creative phase. Once all the words are down, I read the whole thing, trying to do this as a reader instead of as a writer. Then comes the nit-picking, the destruction of the darlings so beloved of the writer but deemed unnecessary by many readers. So it's a knife job; cutting out the dead wood and tightening the story, reducing the word count without damaging the narrative or causing confusion through lack of detail.
Now, after a light meal, I'm on my way to my writing group to talk about books and writing; it's a great life and I love it.

The picture shows the palace at Knossos, Crete.

Edit Progressing, and Going Well

Image via WikipediaSo it continues. Last night I finished chapter 20, so, this morning I start at page 189. Chapter 21 is titled 'Dangerous Words', which sets off the thought, often expressed, that words are powerful influences. We toss and fling them about at our peril and that of others. In conversation, we are quite careless, understandably, since constant consideration of our words would make talking a stilted and hesitant occupation. But, in writing, there's really no excuse for carelessness. In writing, we can always go back over what was written, find the right word and replace that phrase we wrote in the heat of creativity.
And that is what editing is about, mostly. The work I'm currently trying to make perfect has been considered many times since it was first written. It is no longer raw, no longer the unsculpted product of my frenzy at the keyboard. I have revisited with the tools of the craft to remove the carbuncles, soften the spikes, sharpen the contours and repair the odd fissures that have occurred in the making. That is, perhaps, why it is taking less time to polish now. Most of the work has been done and this visit is only to provide that final sheen and to ensure that I haven't, inadvertently, changed the colour of a character's eyes or emasculated a man by turning him into a woman along the way.