Daynote - Tue 6 May

Back out in the woods this morning, where I saw this enormous fungus. I think this is a bracket fungus. It was dinner plate sized, in any case. I stepped off the path to take a picture of it. It was, in fact, a gorgeous walk this morning - hares chasing each other in the fields, a lone deer in the distance and Poppy The Labrador with a new entry in the Best Stick Ever rankings down at the beach.

ON DECK: In the end I worked in the garden so long yesterday that I didn't sit down to write. But it was a bank holiday, so I'll give myself a pass. This morning, I started waaaay back at the start of the manuscript for my second full readthrough, although I'm doing it entirely on screen. I got a nice -341 words, but that was also after adding about 200 words, so I really cut closer to 500 words. But three scenes down so far.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I've done a couple of big non-linear edits first, before diving into this line-by-line readthrough, but this is what I call the integration edit. I'm working from a list of broad, cross-manuscript changes I want to make (give this character more of X, spend less time on reiterating Y, introduce and reinforce this character's motivations earlier and more often), as well as the marked up manuscripts from my critique partners.

Then, I'm going scene by scene and line by line, reading aloud to myself, asking if there's a shorter, cleaner, more effective way to deliver this line, meet my goals above and get to the point quicker. This is the most fun kind of editing, because you can go into a morning's editing with a couple of thousand word scenes and characters with wooly motivations, then come out of it with two tight 750 word scenes that jump off the page.

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this interview with Elaine Garvey on The Conversation with Nadine Matheson. Her debut THE WARDROBE sounds fantastic.

WATCHING: We started watching sixth season of THE HANDMAID'S TALE, which has just started coming out here in the UK. Just like back in 2017, it has a grim currency. And it's very well made. But man, June and Serena really can't get shot of each other, can they?

READING: A bit more INNOCENT GUILT last night. It continues to baffle me (in a good way).

LINK: Caro Clarke at Portobello Literary has posted an excellent two-parter on the basics of money in publishing. Both parts are worth your time. Part 1, Part 2.

UP NEXT: This bit of the daynote is going to get pretty repetitive and dull again, I'm afraid. I'm going to be getting through 3-5 chapters a day, cutting and integrating and polishing, until the whole book is done.

Onward!