Review and Craft...

About half way through reviewing Fitzroy 4 now

This means half way through the project, and probably mentioned it before, but have most of the content for all seven books

So now really a question of how I slice and dice

Book four looks OK content wise, so it’s all about knocking it into shape

So, what am I learning

Well

The stories are getting longer and there is a much more general narrative running through

The original idea was that most of the stories stood alone

I liked to think of them as Christmas crackers

The story being the novelty toy or object

The impact or message of the story the snap of the cracker

The saying accompanying each story the moto or joke

(No hats in Fitzroy crackers, sorry)

But it’s not like that any more

It’s more like one cracker has a third of the story

You need to pull another two to get the whole thing

Is this good or bad, best not to think in these terms

It is as it is, or as they say in France, c’est comme ca

I may be moving away from a collection of stories to chapters in a book

Something I need to think about

And now because of the extended narratives I need to keep an eye on continuity

Make sure I am not referring to incidents that have not yet happened

Make sure the characters don’t contradict themselves

It’s all becoming much more of a craft

Same with the characters

At first they could say or do what they wanted

No longer the case, and with each story they become more defined

That is not to say they cannot grow, develop, or in some cases begin to unravel, or act out of character

But there must be some consistency, or at least underlying logic for new behaviours

So now, as the writer, I am not facing a blank page

The page is in fact full of scribblings that I need to make sense of

So, although I initially set off on a journey of the imagination

I have changed trains, and now it is a journey exploring the craft of writing

Interesting

Of course, I am very fortunate in having a collaborator on the project

They are generally the first person to look at all the output

To have a reader’s point of view, rather than the writers

So, this takes the pressure off

I feel free to take chances

Free from tortured deliberations

Is this good or not, does it fit or not etc

If I’m going off track, then they let me know…