I’m just taking a short breaking from working through the line edits for Amy Green, Bridesmaid Blitz which will be out in October. The timing’s pretty tight so I’m trying to devote as many hours to them as I possibly can, day and night.
Line edits come after the structural edit (sometimes there can be more than one of these if the editor has encountered lots of things they’d like to see changed or worked through) and accompanying author’s re-write. It’s when the editor (or sometimes a different editor) goes through each line of the book, making notes and suggesting changes; some small, like changing a word or adding a line, some bigger, like moving a scene, or checking a character’s motivation rings true.
It’s a vital part of your book’s progression from manuscript to finished bound book, and it’s important to put everything you can into it. By the end of the editing process you should a/ know every chapter practically off by heart and b/ be ready to let your work go, knowing you’ve done all you can to make it the best book possible.
And yes, you can get more than a little sick of your own …
Quick one today as I’m supposed to be writing my new Ask Amy Green book – book 4 – Party Drama-rama.
I was flicking through my daughter’s school workbook this morning – Window on the World Activity Book B. She’s in Senior Infants and she’s just 7.
The book is fun, colourful and relevant. But the writer in me instantly thought how useful books like this are for finding ideas and stories to interest this early reading age group.
In the pages she had drawn things from her own life and things that interest her. Her favourite toy for example is her Nintendo DS. Computers are a big part of her life – lots of pics of those! (Draw things that need electricity). And boats. Lots and lots of boats! (Draw things from your summer holiday).
It’s a fascinating insight into her world – the things she likes, the colours she uses, the way she sees everything around her.
What a great way for a writer to get into the mind of a 7 year old. Grab your child’s (or rob your niece or nephews’) workbook today and look, really look at what she or he is drawing and writing …
More on Writer’s Stamina
In yesterday’s Irish Times, Frank McNally wrote about Michael Collins, the Limerick writer who now lives in America. I met Michael two years ago at the West Cork Literary Festival and he’s a most interesting man to talk to.
Anyway, according to Frank, Michael writes between 3am – AM! – and 6 am, then he teaches all day, writes again between 4pm and 6pm, and sometimes between 9pm and 11pm. Holy moly! Superman writing stamina that. Oh and he also runs ultra-marathons. And yes, the man really does exist.
But this got me thinking about writing mothers and their stamina. When Amy was a small baby I used to write while feeding her, scribbling in my notebook over her little prone body. And I’m by no means the only mum who has written a book while their child was tiny.
Most writing mums don’t really get much in the way of maternity leave. With Jago, my third, I gave myself a much longer break from writing, but it was still only a few months before I was itching to (and needed to financially) get back to my desk. I know, I know, it’s a disease!
Ireland …
As some of you will know I am currently working on book 4 of my Ask Amy Green series for young teens. My series was called Amy Green: Teen Agony Queen, which although it sounded pretty zippy, apparently means some parents, teachers and librarians weren’t buying it for age 10/11+ which it is aimed at. The clue was in the word ‘teen’! So Walker, who are very sensible when it comes to pretty much everything, tweaked the series name slightly.
I digress – yes, again! I know, I know, I’m always digressing!
Back to my point. In order to keep track of the ages, physical characteristics, birthdays, clothes, hair, eyes, dancing ability, musical tastes, name of ex-girlfriends/bands/schools and a myriad of other details I need to remember which is only growing and growing with every book, I have a big spiral notebook in which I jot down these things. I refer to if I get a bit confused/lost/freaked out.
And it’s proved invaluable. Each character has their own page, or in the main characters’ cases, pages. Even very minor characters are covered. And I have sticky notes attached to the top of pages with some of the characters’ names on …
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