Daynote - Mon 17 Mar

Well - I don't tend to do daynotes at the weekend, but I'll make an exception and look back at the weekend just past, because I finished the first draft of PROJECT SCARLET. When I get close to the end of a book and I can count the number of remaining scenes on two hands, I tend to go hell for leather to get it finished.

ON DECK: Over the weekend I got a really solid 11,509 words, split over Saturday and Sunday almost evenly (5,835 on Saturday and 5,674 on Sunday). Process-wise, the Saturday words were done over three roughly hour-long sessions over the course of the day (in the morning, at the garden centre cafe in the sunshine, that was especially nice, then at home in the evening). The Sunday words were one big block of about 4.5 hours in the morning.

That got me to the end of the draft, which has come in vastly overlength at 125,634. That's not unusual for me - I'll usually cut 15-20% in edits. But it's done. Until a first draft is done, my novels feel weirdly inchoate and hazy to me - it's only typing the last few words that gives me a complete artefact that I can then work with. But it's a powerful effect.

Today, I've switched back to PROJECT SHARD, which I'm editing for submission. That involved a lot of chopping scenes up and intercutting them, with little edits that got me a net gain of 872 words.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: When I finish a draft, it's pretty critical that I give it some time to rest before diving into edits. Ideally, this is a decent chunk of time, a couple of weeks or a month. However, sometimes deadlines and other commitments won't wait, so I do the best I can with the time available.

In this case, I'm using this current week to finish edits on PROJECT SHARD during my writing time, so that I at least have a break from the manuscript of SCARLET. But I will be reading SCARLET at lunchtimes and in the evenings, using my Supernote, preparing my edit list as I go and annotating the manuscript. This is me reading the first (and worst) version of the book, taking note of things I need to fix, identifying points where specific changes need to be made and generally getting a sense of the book as a whole. There's a lot to do, not least a fearsome amount of words to be cut (around 20-25k). As usual in my first drafts I also have an absurd surplus of named characters, scenes that once had a purpose but now don't because of changes I made later and lots of similar annoying things to work out. But that's what the readthrough is for - to quantify and delineate that work.

Then, next week, I start editing on SCARLET.

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this episode of The Le Carré Cast about the new TV adaptation that has Matthew Macfadyen attached to it as George Smiley. A really interesting dive into the way TV and film financing, development and production comes together.

WATCHING: More PARADISE over the weekend. The worldbuilding/setup of this show has a LOT of holes in it, but if you can suspend your disbelief about how or why any of these things would happen, it's pretty compelling stuff. As ever with these things though I really want to see more flashbacks and context, earlier. But I'm enjoying it.

READING: Alternating three books this past weekend - my friend's cyberpunk beta read (excellent), GOGMAGOG (which is both getting very tense and weirder by the page) and STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi. I got the latter as part of the Hugo voter packet last year and fancied something fun, which is what Scalzi traditionally delivers. It's got all the trademarks - quippy dialog, compelling initial setup and a compulsive page-turniness. He knows what he's doing.

LINK: I was reminded of this excellent resource put together by Antony Johnston the other day - the Podcast Guest Guide. If you're going to be on a podcast, this is an excellent overview of everything you need to know to sound good, speak coherently and make everything easier.

UP NEXT: As noted, alternating between reading and marking up PROJECT SCARLET at lunchtimes and in the evenings, then reworking some crucial scenes in PROJECT SHARD during my regular morning writing sessions.

I'm hoping to get those SHARD edits finished before I need to start working on SCARLET again. I'm pretty sure it's doable in the next five days. But we'll see.

Onward!