Richard P. Nixon's Blog

I decided to slice and dice things a bit. I knew I had some rearranging to do, but when I took a look at the end result I wasn’t happy with it. So I gutted an entire chapter and moved a couple of the main elements to where they belonged. Took out some info I didn’t have a rock-solid clear memory of, and changed the tone of the rest to more closely match what it was really like for me at the time. I’m not done yet, but the changes are very pleasing.

And as a bonus, the word count went down by about a thousand words.

I’ve got the end of the book in sight, I’m trucking along quite nicely, but all the while I have this nagging feeling that something isn’t going quite as well as I’m thinking. And then it hits – the time line is off. I’m thinking how bad?

So I go back to my notes and letters to see where I screwed up. At first it looks bad, really bad – chapters are going to get rearranged at best. More likely they’ll be gutted altogether, leaving me with a bunch of bits and pieces to fit together.

On closer inspection, though, the situation doesn’t look so dire. Something I thought happened in January 1983 actually happened in December 1982, and something I thought happened in February 1983 happened in mid-March 1983. One event that I thought happened over Christmas ’82 didn’t happen until Easter 1983, or else I’ve lost my mind.

I’m sure there are a few other minor details. I’ll just have to bite the bullet and fix them.

Happy happy joy joy.

When I started writing Over the Hills and Far Away, I presumed everyone I knew put as much distance between them and the schools as I had, and that over time people changed and went their separate ways never to look back. I’ve been surprised and humbled at just how wrong I’d been.

Over the years I’ve heard from most of the people I knew at the time, all with very positive comments about those days and not a hint of hesitation in answering my questions, even if I pressed. I am truly thankful for the encouragement and support I’ve received.

I try to update the website with *something* at least once a month and, as I wind down this particular project and move onto others, I will change the site’s focus accordingly though I’m sure it will return to OTHAFA once the screenplay is completed. 😉

I’m constantly amazed and glad at how rethinking and resequencing can make all the difference in the world. Yesterday I started doodling, hoping inspiration would hit me because I had no idea how I was going to rescue the latest chapter. It was so A, B, C, then D and completely lacked any real impact. I was left thinking, “what’s the point of the chapter?” and that is a sure sign of a needed cut.

Today, despite some smart assed Leprechaun pounding away with his pointy little pickax inside my skull, I managed to turn the chapter around, and now the chapter hits exactly the way I wanted it to.

I still need to tweak the part where the Saudi started shooting at me on the beach and when another Saudi tried to get me into his car with promises of “a good time”, but the flow and content of the chapter is about as perfect as it’s going to get. Well, until tomorrow at least. 😉

I mentioned the day before yesterday that my word count had increased. It’s still increasing and will continue to do so as I add more details such as my take on the Falklands War.

What will remain after the final cut I can’t say for sure, but I’m also trimming fat at every opportunity and it’s been a very rewarding experience.

Word count now stands at 94,740. If they’re good words then that’s okay. Being a realist, however, I see pruning in the near future.

My latest edits have taken me down a path I’d been reluctant to go down, but if I’m to be honest then I must. Just more putting myself in the spotlight which is not always kind to me.  I gotta do what I gotta do.

Wow, after the difficulty with the Soho chapter, I’m pleased at how easy I’ve been able to refresh the current chapter. Really needed a proper introduction and then just a bit of added detail in the first part. That refreshing made a natural breakpoint more apparent, so I’m looking at splitting the chapter there.

Edit: I reorganized this chapter and went with a stronger breakpoint. The original chapter is still split, just not where I thought I was going to.

I started work on the latest chapter in Over the Hills and Far Away and discovered there is a whole lot of detail missing. So I’m going back to the outline and then adding new bits to the outline to smooth things over. Some of what I add might get cut in the end – I have doubts that they are critical to the story, but I’ve done this before and found that sometimes in filling in the details something new and wonderful emerges.

They say if you love someone, set them free. If they come back, you better have a basement to put them up in until they truly get on their own feet. That applies to writing, too. I’ve worked and reworked Soho, and while it is an entirely different chapter than it was previously, there’s still something less than perfect about it, something to do with my arriving in Dhahran the following day that just doesn’t quite do it for me. So I’ve decided to let go of the chapter and move forward to the next project chapter oddly titled, “Blind Man’s Bluff.”

One thing I thought of last night was the need to mature the writing as it progresses. In looking over what I’ve written, I’d already taken care of that aspect early on – bravo (even if I do say so myself – lol).

I’ve also decided to be even more honest in these later chapters. I’ve discovered there are a lot of people I knew from then still very active on the net, and many of them have been very helpful. As a reaction to that I changed the tone, elevating the positives and ignoring how I truly felt. I’ve decided to go back to what I originally felt at the time. This will not cast a negative light on others – it will impact only me, and that’s because of how I viewed the world at the time.

I’ve had another article published at ezinearticles.com. It’s a small but important step in the right direction.