So after successfully finishing a big pile of words for book two, I find myself struggling to get back to work on book one.

I have been thinking a bit more about how to get a handle on the editing process. This may not be a general technique, but in the case of the Kissiltur books I think that the first thing I will need to do is to reread the manuscripts and draw mind maps as I go. I use the term in the plural because I can see that I will need maps for each of the major characters and plot threads, and probably for notes on geography, history, flora and fauna.

This is an effort that I began with précis a while ago but which was never completed. My gazzeteer, as I called it, was intended as a way of capturing all of the geographic invention and distilling into something that I could make a map of.

Somehow I don't think that those writing contemporary fiction have to fight with this stuff quite so much.

After I have that I will hopefully have a better handle on where the holes are, if not how to fix them. Then the minute business of honing the writing itself might be able to start.

I have also started to read a book I have had a little while but never got to: "The Forest for the Trees". It's billed as an editor's advice to writers. We'll see if it is of any use.

But that's five minutes.

Posted by Dunx at February 19, 2009 07:03 AM