Past Imperfect

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Saturday – not a post.

Aside.

Today I finally revised Chapters 2 and 3 and printed them out. The laser printer works well. Having read and re-read the MS fifty million times I have to concentrate like mad and can’t have any extraneous sound. I’m reading Sebastion Faulks’s ‘Devil May Care’- writing as Ian Fleming, and discover he has written 294 pages – like me - but he has 20 chapters and I have a mere 16.

During a break I watched ‘Emma ‘ on TV. Much better than the film I thought. And seeing Mr Knightley’s treatment of Emma took me back to the early days when I behaved less than well and earned MTL’s hauteur or disapproval. Hmmmm!

8 comments:

kenju said...: Pat, I am glad you are taking small breaks, at least. All work and no play.......you know the rest....LOL; 12:10 AM
Keith said...: If you need a 'proof reader' before publication then I volunteer to cast a critical eye over this forthcoming masterpiece.; 12:47 AM
Pat said...: Keith:it's a very kind offer but one of the reasons I have been at it so long is extensive proof reading and still the little errors slip through.
It's no masterpiece and a too critical eye might be the end of a beautiful friendship:); 8:11 AM
OldLady Of The Hills said...: Cobcentrating with no outside noise is essential, I think, to the editing process. One can get so easily distracted by other things.
I'm amazed you can be reading someone else's book while editing your own, my dear! You Are A Wizard!; 8:36 AM
Daphne Wayne-Bough said...: Pat - didn't make it over here in time to wish you a Merry Christmas, so I'm early to wish you a Happy New Year and much success with the book. Your blog and comments have been a tonic all through 2008.; 10:10 AM
Annie Wan said...: hmm no rest for the wicked! this year i discovered a little talked about literary heroine in magdalen vanstone from wilkie collins' victorian romance no name. looking forward to your book when it comes out x; 12:54 PM
Eryl Shields said...: Well done and keep at it, it's a difficult task reading over and over one's own work, but once you see it beginning to take the shape you want it to then the fun begins. Hemingway said he rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms thirty nine times, why? because he couldn't find the right words! That gives me such hope, because if he struggled at times no wonder I do.; 2:12 PM
Pat said...: Naomi: it's just bed- time reading and it helps me to switch off. Bond isn't exactly my cup of tea.

Daphne: lovely to hear from you and many thanks for your kind words.

Mei del: I haven't heard of Wilkie Collins for years. I must look it up when I come up for air.

Eryl: when I think of my heroes - Fitzgerald, Hemingway et al I wonder what the hell I'm doing thinking I can write a book - but then I chase the demons away and carry on.; 4:00 PM