Editorial almost ready

I’m waiting for John Jarrold to finish editing TC. He tells me it’ll be done next Monday.

I want to print 60 or so copies for review by the students I’m taking to Geneva in December, and others, but I doubt whether I’ll have time to incorporate his editorial and get it printed ready for them to read it before we go. That’s a pity, since it would be good for them to know some of the background to CERN. It might help them get more out of their trip.

 

Restructure first few chapters

I read another sample of TC to the Coventry Writers’ Group on Tuesday, this one involving Catriona, and they thought it was funny. They were surprised that this was from the same manuscript as I read to them last month, which was Seline arriving in the ATLAS Control Room.

So I decided to restructure the opening few chapters and mix the comical Catriona scenes with the serious ACR scenes in each chapter, for several reasons:

• It shows the reader the range of characters immediately, in the first (short) chapter.
• Most readers like a laugh and by showing the humour at the beginning we might capture more readers than showing the technical sections.
• Many readers might be put off by starting with the technical side.

I’ve actually had this structure before and got rid of it, deciding that short intercut scenes are more suited to action sections. It just goes to show you that you have to keep trying, often retracing your steps, until you find the right design.

It also shows, of course, how seriously I take reader feedback.

Redesigning the first chapter had knock-on effects through the first few chapters, but this was relatively easy to do because chapters are broken into plot-points. I could just drag them around in PowerWriter.

I then recorded and listened to the new structure. I was worried that these short scenes which introduce a lot of characters very quickly, might be confusing, but I don’t think it is. It puts the reader into the action, “in media res” as they say in the writing courses, and that’s got to be a good thing.

 

John Jarrold

After a week or more of depression about not getting any feedback on TC I finally take the plunge and sent a copy to script doctor John Jarrold yesterday. He’s a highly experienced editor of many works of SF/Fantasy to judge from his web site and the help he gives free to people on the Chronicles Network so if he shows me where TC is wrong it’ll be worth the money. And there MUST be plenty wrong with it.
I have very little experience selling into the vicious and merciless battlefield they call book publishing. I published my first book Hyperdictionary through a commercial publisher but that was a factual book and was snapped up by the first publisher I wrote to. I couldn’t find a publisher for Global Vision and had to publish it myself. Fiction is a different ball game. Even worse I know nothing about the Young Adult market, which is the target audience (since this is the group that drop science). I have no idea whether the work will appeal to this group (except for feedback from Tehun, but he might not be at all typical).
Got up this morning feeling much better. At last I have a hope of getting some constructive feedback from somebody who understands the craft and the market. I begin to do my paid work (British Association) with a light heart. Even begin to tidy the clutter off my desks which have been threatening to overwhelm the keyboard and even look at the piles of books scattered around my office and wonder if they might get shelved sometime soon.
Of course it may not last but it’s wonderful to have the clouds of anxiety lift for even a few hours. When you invest your life in a project it’s a great help if you share the burden with somebody who can advise you where you’re going wrong. Especially at this early stage. Even after five years hard work I am still really only at the beginning and I could still turn the whole thing round. For example JJ might say that Alex should be much closer in age to Catriona (as he originally was) or that chapters 4 to 7 should be compressed into a single chapter (as I suspect) or that the Prologue doesn’t work for the target audience (which I also suspect).
Still I’ll try to put all this aside for a few days and get on with my other life until I hear from the dear old doctor.

 

Finishing Touches

The MS is finished and I’m spending my time going through it, listening to it, correcting little mistakes. There were some horrible sections but I hope I’ve fixed all those now. I’m pretty damn pleased with the result. It’s frustrating not knowing whether this stuff is as good as I think it is. No, I guess nothing is as good as that. I must be infatuated with my own work. It’s just that I keep hearing new things in it, things I don’t remember writing. Often it’s as if I’m listening to somebody else’s work, and I still think it’s damn good. Wonder if anyone else will?

I’m also putting together the illustrations to go with the MS. Not many, just one or two for each of the three parts. Just 3 days left to finish proofing and printing. Then down to London on Monday to deliver it by hand, just hours before the deadline.

I then will have to start doing all the things I’ve been neglecting over the past few weeks in the mad scramble to get this finished, such as vacuuming the floor and ironing clothes. I’ve got to the state of having to buy trousers because I don’t have the discipline or time to iron. There must be a joke in there somewhere about iron will, but I can’t think what it is.