27. Getting Wise (After the event)

Getting Wise (After the event): And why Stark3 took long!

As I’ve mentioned before, when a manuscript is off with the editor for a week or four, I’ll be working on the next book, or indeed ideas for those after (please note: you’ll only get to read those if you buy, and encourage others to buy, the early ones so my publishers stick with me – just saying…). So, when Between The Crosses was finished I was already well advanced with the third in the series and, riding high, I raced (by my slow standards) through to a first draft in record time.

After a couple of weeks off to free my head in choice titles from my teetering TBR pile, I read Book#3 front to back to see what shape it was in (see blog #3), felt rather pleased with myself, and set about two more drafts before sending it off to my editor.

This is they way I work. I finish the book (or get it as close to finished as I can) before sharing it with anyone outside immediate family. With the first, you have little choice unless you are part of a writing group or community (which I’ve never made time for, to my loss), as you likely have no agent or publisher to act as a sounding board. With the second, I did what I’d done with the first. In both instances this led to time-consuming re-writes, but this time I was confident. After all, I’d submitted a synopsis of books 3 and 4 to my publisher before they offered me my second two-book deal and they were enthusiastic.

But when they read the fully expanded version, they felt I’d let a sub-plot swerve the narrative away from the main crime thread right when it should’ve been focusing on the denouement. They suggested cutting it completely, but this sub-plot had been my very first idea for this book, the key misdirectional hook I had built the story around and contained what I felt was some of my finest writing and a delicious new character. So instead, I spent months turning a ‘What the f**k!’ swerve into ‘Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming!’. And it worked. It made it even better!

My publishers, however, still disagreed.

Remember all the times in previous blogs I’ve repeated the advice I was given – not to be precious…?

I hadn’t listened. And my wonderful editors had been too nice to be firm.

They, and I, want these Stark novels to do well. We love the first two but they’ve sold only modestly. The best chance of turning that around is to make each new book the best it can be. The best crime book it can be. And whilst I’d achieved a thrilling ending that I loved, it had more to do with my protagonist’s multi-book arc than the key crime in this book.

‘Sometimes,’ they said, ‘you just have to amputate’.

Sometimes (always dear reader, always) you need to listen to what the experts are saying.

So I necked the proverbial shot, bit down on the stick and cut – beloved writing, thrilling action, heartrending scenes, sharp ideas and that wonderful character who I may never now manage to re-weave into Stark’s future – all of it. Months of painstaking stitching and erasure of scars. And did any of this make it better…?

Yes. It did.

Editing can be agony, but in my experience it always makes it better because the desire to tell the best stroy you can rests behind every keystroke you make. I found new, better ways of keeping it deeply personal to Stark while ensuring his third adventure remains focused on what it should always have been, a crime book. I hope you’ll find it gripping, disturbing, thrilling and satisfying.

So Draft 7 finally passed muster. Draft 8 escaped the editing process. Drafts 9 through 11 took care of the copyediting and 12 was me making sure the finally agreed title (see blog posts #10 and #23 on working titles) echoed through the text. I’ll shortly be sending my proofreading notes (your last chance to read the page proofs for typos, errors or tweaks) back to Penguin – so the book that hits the shelves will be Draft 13. Instead of 2 years between books, it’ll be nearly five.

So, I have a new writing motto:

DON’T BE PRECIOUS. AND…

I have 30,000 words of Book#4 down, plus a lot more in oft-contradictory notes and increasingly messy synopsis. I’ve sent it all off to my editor. Once she’s had a good look, we’ll talk it through before I go haring off in directions that might later concern them. This is new to me, but I really hope it saves pain and time later. I’ll keep you posted.