Editing

Should that be a - or a ,? Which is more fitting for the style of prose? What do I usually use in such circumstances, or have used in the previous chapter? Minor details can seem like big decisions!

Editing is not unlike cooking, a little dash of something extra can make the whole paragraph rise like a perfect sponge. Replace a single word with one not quite suitable and the result looks and feels decidedly flat. Words that have been written in an outpouring of ink on paper, summoned from inside the head of a character other than one's own, can leave me feeling exhausted at the end of the flow; convinced that I too have been murdering/loving/missing/creating in that character's stead. A period of cooking and cooling is definitely needed. Step away, do the washing up, mull it over, look through the oven door, but don't touch, not yet.

When the time comes to taste the cake, I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get. Did I add enough zest, or is there too much vanilla? Will a reader guess that so-and-so might be feeling cross or happy because I hinted at this several pages ago? A devourer of the cake doesn't necessarily want to know what has made it look and taste so chocolately, they simply want it to taste good - and preferably be calorie-free! So, I assume a reader wants to read, question a little and understand well, leaving him or her with a desire for more, for the next slice.

It can be tricky to know whether to change something that someone says or does, when it felt so right at the initial time of writing. Gut instinct versus some necessary distance.

So, red pen, purple pen, biros and pencils, wads of paper and post-it notes take the place of recipe books. I consult books, reference sites, dictionaries, imagination, instincts and memory and at the end of the day hope that inside it all there's a story with enough interest and Vim (although wasn't that a cleaning product?!) and charm of its own to become a book - when I've finished re-writing and editing. Time to ice the cake!