Richard P. Nixon's Blog

Struggling a bit with the Winter Term 1979 portion. Almost drawing a blank. I was in Ireland for Christmas ’78, and I went to the States for Easter ’79, but what happened in between is a mystery now that I’ve moved some other stuff out of this section. Hmm, I wonder would it be creatively acceptable to insert a bunch of blank pages to represent that period of time. Na, a publisher would wince at that – would cost money.

I revamped the Portora section, added new details and resequenced some of the chapters. Discovered an error in the timeline so I had to fix that. Feeling very good about the rewrites, though I wish they’d all come at once so I’d be done! 😉

Our dog, Fubar, seems to be responding spectacularly well to the insulin. She’s perked up a lot and is her old self (which is amazing for a near 13-year old dog). So I am getting back to editing my first year at Portora. From what I’ve re-read, it needs work. It’s too depressing – I think. We’ll see.

It’s been tough going the past few days. I’ve been reviewing some Portora sections and, all the while, my dog Fubar has just not been right. I took her in and was told she had diabetes. Unfortunately my vet, whom I’ve been with for over 12 years, chose to try to panic me to action and, well, that was the wrong way to go about things. When I have questions, don’t just tell me “because.” So I took Fubar in for a second opinion and had the diagnosis confirmed. Our new vet explained everything without theatrics, so I green lighted the treatment. I’d already looked into insulin and the whole thing, and I’ve given her the first shot an hour ago.

Needless to say my editing/reviewing progress has been slowed.

I decided this chapter was no longer up to snuff, so I’m revamping it to flesh out some subtle new details. So far so good.

Doing my preliminary final walk through the manuscript now, fishing out the last of the bugs. Will have one more to go before I call it finished finished.

One of the most important and useful tools for the writer is to read his or her work aloud. After you’ve read it with your eyes for the thousandth time, your brain starts to fill in the gaps. So it becomes really easy to miss mistakes. Let your ears take some of the load – you’ll be amazed at what you end up catching.

I’ve gone back to the very beginning and combed the knots out. This gave me the opportunity to add some details to punch up the story without going over the top. By jove, I think I’ve got it!

It never ceases to amaze me the little opportunities I find to make my manuscript just that much better. There are known “rules” about writing, and perhaps the biggest is using “active” voice. You know,  “Grandma was hit by the reindeer” becomes “the reindeer hit Grandma.” Not a big change but significant nonetheless.

What’s funny is the number of published books I’ve read that don’t adhere to this or any other particular rule. I’m almost thinking the rules were set up to keep people from getting published, as if once you figure out the rule really is to ignore the rules, you’re in like Flynn.

Na, they’re breaking the rules because they know how to. LOL.

Wow, it’s been an interesting struggle but I’ve managed to finish the preliminary final on the Sligo section, and I’ve managed to cut about 900 words – this is after adding about 1000 over the past few days. So I’ve a net gain of only a few, and that’s a good thing. I’m sure there will be more changes in the near future but, so far, I’m happy with where this is going.

Who knows, I might even make my deadline. 😉