Levels of competence

 

A Red Sky at Night block in progress.

I've been engrossed in the third novel of my current series, finding it required a good looking-after, lol. The story is fine, mostly, though I need to read it again to confirm when one character is first mentioned by another character to make sure I didn't mess up later events, ahem. That's one level of competence, in that when a novel is written on the fly, occasionally plot points don't meet up at correct angles.

I have also discovered minor examples of prose requiring mild sharpening. That's fine, what revisions are all about. But it was startling to me to read a sentence, then immediately refashion it first within my head, then onto the document. Or deleting a sentence or phrase, making for tighter writing. Again, why edits are important, as well as time away from a manuscript so perspective can play its magical role in the process.

I think of editing as the easy part of writing. Some may not agree, but for my method of crafting a book, it seems that revisions are like candy. Writing isn't hard, but it's the toughest element in the cranking out of the story on a daily basis. In how some people like making quilt tops but find the completion a pain, I feel that writing is the trickiest part of the deal. Now, having said that, I'm currently finishing a quilt top that I sewed together LAST YEAR. So not all quilt tops are golden, and some rewrites are A BIG FAT HASSLE. Life Stories was a bear to wrangle, and a few old manuscripts linger in hard and flash drives because the notion of reworking them is simply more than I can ponder. If that means my skill as a writer is such that edits are less painful than they should be, awesome! If I means my books could use more revisions, well.... Readers can be the judges on that point, insert winking emoji here.

What I'm trying to say is that nearly eighteen years after writing my first book, I kinda know what I'm doing. Which is a marvelous sensation, yet there is always room for improvement, what I have learned in a gentle but telling way in reading Book 3. And that's fine; I don't expect my novels to be perfect, or even mostly perfect. I am one of those writers who can read (MOST OF) their own work for enjoyment as well as how to make it better. I write first for myself, well, mostly for myself. I write due to an inner sense of, "What else are you going to do with this impetus of story, character, theme, and ample time on your hands?" I write, well, let me back up a wee bit. When I write, it's because I have no choice in the matter. I wrote four first drafts last year. In 2024 I haven't written anything but a few chapters of a possible addendum to the current series, but that story's fate remains undecided. 2024 has been a year for revising and publishing, sometimes that's how the calendar months go. Not only The Enran Chronicles, but The Hawk too, so yeah, no slacking here. My level of competence as an author increases with every revision, every novel. Writing is about creating a new world, revisiting an old one, going on a journey. And sometimes that journey revolves around making sure as many i's are dotted and t's crossed as well as confirming when a character enters the fray and who spots them first.

Then reiterating that correctly later in the tale, lol. Lots more happens certainly, but basics are important. Yet the main element has to be a writer's love for what they do. Errors occur, none of us are infallible, but the heart of a writer has to be felt in the yarn they spin. I hope my heart is conveyed appropriately, and well, there's always another round of edits to smooth out what seems awry.