I am busy editing Flipside, my next novel and have got to the stage where now I’m really looking at grammatical and punctuation errors, having, I hope, ironed out any other inconsistencies and faults. I had a little problem where someone seemed to have broken into an impregnable house, but I solved that by having the housebreaker’s brother being the man who had fitted the security system. I was worried by the fact that no-one had a mobile phone so I shifted the date back a couple of years, and I carefully checked that there were no other anachronisms.
I will soon be nearing the final stage, what my husband calls ‘the mumbles’ when I read my story out loud as a way of distancing myself from the familiarity of the text, and then will read the chapters in reverse order, again looking for any inconsistencies.
When I am away from the computer, I can still work on my editing, even when driving or waiting in a queue; I run through the story in my head but from the point of view of a different character. Flipside is a first person narrative with Jaz the main character; now I’m telling it to myself through the eyes of Des, Jaz’s brother’s best friend and partner. I might also look at it from Denise’s point of view, Des’s ex-wife.
As usual my editing is taking longer than I anticipated… but I’d prefer to take the extra time and get rid of as many errors as possible… one day, when I’m a famous author, I’ll have an editor and proof-reader to do that; until then, I’m telling myself stories!
Lois Elsden 