Greetings dear reader! I hope this newsletter finds you well and rested. For those of you in the northern hemisphere, happy spring! For those of you in the southern hemisphere, happy no-longer-dying-in-summer-heat! (If one of my readers has moved to the south pole, I’ll feel like an ass right now).
Things continue moving along in my life. I have lots to report and little to report. The big thing in my writing is that I finally finished the rewrite and am now in the polishing stage! Huzzah and Praise the Sun! My editor and I fiercely disagree about the ending of the novel (we were both quite animated in our last meeting), but assuming our fight doesn’t extend to fisticuffs, now it’s just a matter of refining the prose and the pacing and the character voices and the themes and the exposition and the action and…
The novel has grown so much since its first incarnation. The draft I gave to beta readers was 70k words. And then, given the feedback I received, I cut a chapter from the beginning to have the plot start faster, I cut several battles from the middle so it wouldn’t get muddled down. And I cut out a lot of the chapters that discuss history that is less relevant to the story. At one point, the novel was down to 35k words. And now?
How did the novel grow so much, you ask? Good question!
Some of this new length is expanding on the descriptions. I think my original style was a bit too minimalist, and not in an especially engaging way (I don’t aspire to write like Cormac MacCarthy). I didn’t have my characters interacting with the environment a lot, which, for a novel that depends so much on the geography, is bad.. Finland needed to come alive, and I think it does in this draft.
A lot of the new length is being more aware of pacing. My first novel was disjointed and speechy, so, to compensate, the novel went at a breakneck speed so the reader always has things going on and didn’t get bored. Can’t get bored when big things happen every chapter! This novel is a lot less disjointed and is paced better (though it’s actually structured as a trilogy, with short story chasers between each book), so I needed to learn to slow down a bit and let the emotional parts hit.
But most of the new length was developing the relationships. The original beta reading version followed the history a bit too closely, and didn’t spend enough time developing the characters and their relationships. It’s something almost all of my beta readers asked for, and I really think this version delivers.
But I can talk about things beside writing!
I’m going to Italy in a May! Rugby season is starting! I’m getting back into my cardio routine! Work continues to be amazing! All good things in my life.
I’m going to Italy to play rugby. In Rome, in fact. But I’m most excited to see the Dolomites. They’re gorgeous:
I’ve never been to the Alps before (the range the Dolomites are part of), but The Blue Mountains were my favourite part of my trip to Australia, and I expect this to be no different.
This also means you’ll be getting ridiculous amounts of rugby photos for the next 3 updates, so I’ll skip the photos of me this time 😉
As for work, our big annual Make a Buzz banquet is approaching, and, for those of you in Ottawa, I recommend attending the live auction and seeing inclusion in action! I work so hard to write because I believe that my writing can make the world a better place (and give people rocket packs so they can fly to the moon…). But LiveWorkPlay makes the world better every day by helping the community welcome and include people with intellectual disabilities, autistic persons, and individuals with a dual diagnosis to live, work, and play as valued citizens. Here’s a video of last year’s awards ceremony if you don’t believe me:
You can donate or buy tickets here if you’d like Supporting LiveWorkPlay makes the world a better place and also helps me pay my bills. It’s a win-win!
I realise I haven’t really included any photos of myself or my baking in this update. Regrettable. But you’ll be sick of rugby photos of me by the end of the summer, so I think we’re good here for today.
-Payce