Paksworld

Fortuitous combination: a couple of days ago,  I got my contributor’s copy of the October Writer’s Digest in which I have a (commissioned) article on SFWA.  Naturally it became the instant “in the throne-room” reading (it’s new, it’s different) and though I’m no longer a novice writer, there’s still stuff to learn.

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Progress continues on both the revisions of book two and the first-drafting of book three.   In the original Paks books, I wrote parts of the second and third book in parallel almost.   Here I’m finding revising two while writing three to be just as useful–since the things are So Darned Long, working on the previous one helps with continuity.   A lot.

So…what’s happening now?

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There’s a chapter in Book Two that is Not Right.   Now usually at this point in a project, I know if something isn’t right, and why it’s not right, and thus how to fix it and make it right.

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The growing tip of the story is alive and moving in the third book.   At the moment, it’s growing with a chapter in each of several  viewpoints.   There’s Arcolin having breakfast in camp, about to confront some annoyed gnomes, and Dorrin watching the children learning to make pastry, and Andressat about to make a very important announcement to his family.   I’m not sure what Kieri’s doing, because I’m not sure the end of the second book won’t change by the time I finish the revisions of it.

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There was a glitch with the copy edits…which I haven’t talked about much if at all.   They didn’t come, and didn’t come, and finally I was told that they weren’t able to contact the copy editor.   I tried to be a Good Little Writer and just keep truckin’ on the revisions, but as time passed, I worried more and more.  (So, of course, did my editor.)

The worry began to interfere with my ability to concentrate on the book (no, I do not possess superhuman concentration) and I began to spend more online time far away in another corner of the internet.   Nature listservs, email, the new SFWA website’s beta test…anything…

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Apologies, to start with…I could not bear to see the cover image slide down out of sight…hence the lack of posts for a week.

But I haven’t been idle in that time.   No, the copy edits aren’t here yet, but some structural problems in book two…aren’t here still.   They’re fixed.   Here’s what happened.

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First: Happy Canada Day to you Canadians.

Second:   This may make you laugh.  It did me.   Critical scene–critical in terms of reader spatial orientation as well as reader “what’s happening” orientation.

And I got both direction (east v. west) and possibility wrong.   It was a plot bomb, and I was writing as fast as I could, but still!  East is east and west is west and if you go the wrong way you end up in the wrong place.   And one little three-letter word (“not”)  makes a huge difference.

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This morning I was goofing off by starting book three,  which meant I needed to check a few things from one and two.

It’s a fairly minor plot point (so far) so I don’t think it’s hugely spoilerish to reveal a little.    Some of Our Folks are in Aarenis, on a contract with Cortes Vonja to deal with brigands.  Standard, ordinary, until they find some swords.  One of the swords is a  Halveric sword, which is odd because the Halverics were careful to recover the arms of their wounded and dead.

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The ideas continued into the evening (naturally, because I have house guests arriving.    Probably in less than two hours, now, and I’m still glued to the book.)

ANYway.   I’ve had to start re-writing because there are tricky things to convey.    This shouldn’t be too spoilerish, but if you’re highly concerned about spoilers, you might want to turn away.

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And lo, the book is now just under 170,000 words, which was my goal (not my editor’s insistence…she just said snippages might have to be made, and I was motivated to do my own snipping.)    Yes, Old MacDonald’s Farm was running through my head as I was doing the last part (you get silly,  if you weren’t to start with.  “Snip, snip here….snip, snip there…here a snip, there a snip, everywhere a snip, snip.”

In the process I found problems I would have sworn (falsely, it turns out) weren’t there, or had been fixed two weeks ago.   Surely I’d already corrected that clumsy phrase…was Word’s stupid little paper-clip assistant hopping along behind me and unfixing what I fixed?   Surely I’d already noticed that typo in a name (the name is Astil, not Astin…)  and fixed it…but no.  No also to the pair of semicolons side by side, the missing last letters on several words (! what was I thinking!), another couple of pronouns whose antecedents could be misunderstood…all the sawdust and bent nails on the floor of the novel-building workshop.   (Sweep, sweep, sweep,  but there’s always something…)

If there’s one mistake–one typo, one clunky phrase, one factual error, one continuity error–you folks will find it and (even though you’re probably too polite to do this) someone will wave it in the air like a trophy.   But I’m done.  I’m wiped.   It’s going back to my editor tomorrow, and maybe I won’t see it again until the copy editor’s tromped all over it.  Which reminds me, I need to work on a note of gentle guidance for the copy editor.