Chapter 24 has been annoying me for some time, and on the train back from London the other week I decided I would have to re-write it completely. Now that I’ve done it, I feel cautiously optimistic about the whole novel, and inspired to complete the rest of the edits as quickly as I can.
It’s a funny thing when you feel a chapter or even a scene within a chapter isn’t right. I am still not quite sure what the problem was, or at least I can’t easily express it, but it may have had something to do with there not being enough tension. I don’t really go in for a lot of tension but this was a chapter where tension definitely was required!
It’s only thanks to Script Frenzy (an offshoot of NaNoWriMo) that I’ve managed to get to this stage at all. My initial Script Frenzy target was to complete my historical novel, begun in November 2008 and left to languish since then apart from sporadic attempts to edit which usually involved either beefing up or removing the amount of Arthurian legend I had shoehorned into it. I still haven’t decided which it’s to be, but I do know that I have a plan to get it finished one way or another.
I currently have multiple targets for Script Frenzy, none of which have anything to do with actual scripts. This is known as being a ‘Script Frenzy rebel’, a role I don’t entirely approve of. But I digress (not for the first time). My cunning plan is to finish editing ‘Death at the Happiness Club’ during the first week of April, then move on and do as much editing as I can on ‘Song of Vanora’ during the second week, then order a printed copy of that novel in order to proof-read, and while I’m waiting for it to arrive (3rd week) I will write a short story for the Kindle Users Forum summer holiday anthology. Then in the fourth week I will completely proof-read ‘Song of Vanora’.
Then I will lie down in a darkened room OR more likely, attempt to rush both novels into publication as soon as I can before I think of any more edits to do.
Thank you very much, Script Frenzy!
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 