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10.6.13

FOTO - FINISH


No, you haven't strayed back into Day Six of the AtoZ Challenge - I am simply taking advantage of the Spanish spelling to make a headline.

FIRST the FOTO 
If you stand right underneath a jacaranda tree this is what you see - isn't it glorious?

FOLLOWED by the FINISH.
YAY!  I have reached the end of my re-write of HELTER-SKELTER which I began way back in March, when an agent said I could re-submit my novel to her when I had addressed some issues.
So I have tightened up the plot, cutting out scenes that, although I liked them, didn't move the story forward. I have written it more from my main character's point of view and cut back on the POVs of other people.
I've tracked down and eliminated repetitions, deleted people with absolutely no regard for how they might feel about it, and made the sex a bit raunchier.

I am a writer with no formal training in the craft, and the pages of advice from the agent were invaluable.
As was the help and support of the members of Talkback - the online writers' forum to which I belong. I have never met any of them in the flesh, but I feel I know them personally. A couple have even put aside their own work to comment on mine - a true act of friendship.

Today I had all 316 pages of HELTER-SKELTER printed at the Copy Centre in Los Cristianos - at €15.60 I considered it a bargain that saves over-burdening my own printer - and after a final read-through it will be time to get it professionally proof-read while I tackle the synopsis.

Then back to the agent.

"gulp"

One question remains - can I do all this with my fingers crossed?

6 comments:

  1. You have done well again. My fingers are also crossed for you. Booker Prize some day? Well we can all dream as writers must & do.

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  2. Lovely picture - and congrats on 'finishing'!

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  3. Well done on finishing. Hope you succeed in finding a publisher or agent.

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  4. Uncross your fingers so you can complete the final read through and let us cross our fingers for you! You're lucky to have an agent who gives such detailed advice. It's a shame that editors no longer seem to edit... but that's another story. Good luck and thanks for the tree 'foto'. It's beautiful.

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  5. Congratulations! I love getting to the end of a manuscript, even if I know I'm going to delve right back into it for another round. Good luck with the next stage :-)

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