
I had one of those nights where I wake up from a deep sleep with a solution I didn’t even know I was looking for.
I’d already decided that I want to change my system of work and go back to writing the outline and first draft of anything by hand.
Back in the very old days, I’d brainstorm and outline in one shorthand (reporter’s) notebook, then leave it open while I wrote the first draft of anything in another shorthand notebook. Once the first draft was written, I’d score through the outline in Book 1, or place a big tick over it.
Next, I’d get an A4 notepad, usually hole-punched and with a margin down the side, and with shorthand notebook 2 open I’d copy and rewrite draft 2. Once the second draft was written, I’d score through the first draft in Book 2.
Then I’d prop the A4 notepad up, or use a lectern, and copy type my first typed draft, or draft 3. Once the third draft was typed, I’d score through the second draft in Book 3.
I’d print out the first typewritten draft and hard-copy edit it before making any changes to the screen version.
Then I’d print out the typewritten draft again and proofread it.
Once I was happy with the work, off it went on its merry way.
These days, I brainstorm in a touchy-feely A5 notebook, outline in an exercise book or on Plottr, transfer the outline to Scrivener, and off I go. I used to still export it to Word, print it off, and do the hard-copy edit and proofread. But lately I’ve been proofreading on screen and just hitting the send button.
Aside from the quality obviously dropping, it’s not doing my eyes any good. Or my posture if I’m forever sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen.
So I’d decided to go back to at least writing one draft by hand, and to printing it off and editing and proofreading it properly before it goes anywhere.
Words Worth Reading Issue Two is due out next week and I was supposed to be writing a new story for it, The Ace of Swords. The first 2 stories in this series were done the old way, albeit with fewer hand-written drafts. And I had a niggle at the back of my mind that this one wouldn’t be of the same quality.
I’m not saying the other two are a very high quality, I’m just saying that Story 3 wouldn’t be equal to the first 2.
But there’s no way I can handwrite a 5,000-word short story from scratch, type it up and get it edited and proofread in time for next week, especially when I also have a 15,000-word novelette still to write before the end of the month.
So I changed the plan.
Yes, The Ace of Swords was advertised in the previous bookazine as appearing in the next bookazine, and yes, I have been working on the storyline. But it’s my bookazine, my short story, and I can change things around if I want to.
I had another story I could use that’s almost 5,000 words: The Egg Thief. It’s 4,600 words and it’s ready to go. In fact, it’s already been out twice and come back.
It’s another Stevie Beck story, but until now I haven’t published any of her stories. Now, there will be 2 in one bookazine, because The Old Annexe is also a Stevie Beck story.
The only other story that might have fit is Killer Queen, which is a Marcie Craig story. I’m already serialising a Marcie Craig story in the bookazine, Night Crawler, and it could still do with a bit of a tidy up. Either way I would have had 2 stories featuring the same character in a single bookazine but, again, it’s my bookazine and I can break the ‘rules’ if I want to.
The Ace of Swords will go into the new regime of being handwritten first and, hopefully, it will be in the next bookazine in April. I have 2 months now to write it, and to polish A Mystery At Whitehorse Farm. Everything else is already done.
Job #1 of the day, then, was to dig out The Egg Thief, give it a quick read through, format it, and insert it into the bookazine. I changed the cover image, changed the picture credits and rewrote the welcome letter. I also added in the titles of the stories that will be appearing in the following issue as, apart from The Ace of Swords, they’re at least already written.
This then meant that the remaining tasks were all brought forward and marked off as done, and publication was brought forward from next Friday to next Monday, which was the original publication date.
Yay! I made another bookazine!
I moved the remaining tasks for The Ace of Swords to dates in the future (i.e. next week, as I could swap them with the bookazine tasks that were brought forward), and I’ll work on Fallen Angel between then and now, as well as the next short story for 12 Stories in 12 Months, our first of the year.
I had quite a few layout issues whilst uploading the bookazine to Draft2Digital. I don’t know why. I must have revised and uploaded the file a dozen times. Once it was safely uploaded, I started off the print process too, and then I moved to Google Play Books. Again, I had a few attempts at uploading the files, and it just kept getting stuck. The book is there in the directory, and it keeps telling me I’ve uploaded the files safely. But then it’s saying there are no files uploaded.
Deciding that Google Play might be having a blip, I abandoned it for the day. It was already almost 6pm, and my resolve to not spend much time in front of the screen completely failed.
Today I will try harder.
Wow! What a productive day! I am impressed at how much you manage to write. It’s good to go back to tried and trusted methods.
I get revelations in the middle of the night too! Annoying but can be the right thing at the right time. Aren’t our brains weird?
Have you read Devon’s blog? She gets through a ton more than I do!
My brain is definitely weird!
Lots of good work in there.
D2D’s layout limitations can get very frustrating. They make the Topic Workbooks a nightmare at times.
I’d got the layout working first time every time until this week. Tech has literally gone t!ts up this week.
I’ve heard that Lulu is better for images and tables in interiors, but I don’t know if they send you their file conversions like D2D do or if they hold them hostage.