Nothing Is Ever Broken – The Climb #196

Saturday 5^th August 2017

Today has been all about one thing: fixing chapter one.
In truth, this has meant spending 95% of the day thinking about it and about 5% of the day actually making changes.
But this chapter has become a bugbear of mine, and editing it again has been as much a psychological challenge as it has an intellectual and creative one. There’s a fear that I no longer know what to do with it. The failed attempt last week has got me doubting myself and my ability to fix it.
But if editing has taught me anything, it’s that nothing is ever broken. It’s just not edited enough.
Failure is very much part of a writer’s journey. Sometimes some things just don’t work. But, more often than not, it needs that failure to find the successful resolution. At least… that’s what I’m telling myself.
I’m not sure if the chapter needs to more work to tighten it up a little more but I think this version brings a lot of tension with it. Instead of a long, complicated plot that weighs down the start, it goes for the premise that the plan has fucked up and he has to come up with something new.
Does this fix the issue? Does this make people feel our hero is competent and capable, or does it just make him look a fool? I honestly have no idea. I’m so confused about a lot of this chapter that it’s the reason I left it a couple of days before attempting this edit.
I’ll send it out to Kate to beta read. This actually doesn’t have a huge amount of differences to draft 13.0. It still amazes me how changing one sentence can completely change the meaning and emotion in a chapter. I changed a bit more than one sentence but for how much I’ve agonised over it, it’s not a huge amount of change.
This morning was spent doing domestic chores. Part of this was procrastination, part of it was that I had no clean jogging bottoms for training tomorrow. I also popped out to pick up an amazon parcel that I got delivered to my local Amazon locker. It consisted of a new toy designed to build forearm strength (but has turned into my own version of a fidget spinner) and some massage balls.
I saw the balls being used for deep tissue massage on a Youtube video and felt that they could be perfect for me. Training as hard as I am, I have a number of aches and pains. Where I am leant over my computer after doing heavy deadlifts, I have lower back pain that I’m sure is muscle related. And so rolling on a mat with one of those balls on the affected area, has eased the pain and made me a little less stiff.
Tomorrow is my last day sparring before Fightcamp and I’d like to do well. I charged all my cameras up today with the view that I’m going to start vlogging my progress. I’ve ordered a couple of memory cards as my Storm chase 2017 ones are all full and I don’t like to clear those down. I like having 3 copies of my storm chase videos: one on the card, one on the computer hard drive and one on the backup drive. It’s still not perfect, I realise, but at least I have some backup. I suspect that aside from the timelapses, I’ll never need to use the footage again.
But with a number of tournaments as well as trips to Sweden and Romania coming up later this year, I think vlogging my swordfighting journey will make for some interesting content. Having watched the vlogs of a load of gymnasts, I have a very clear idea of what the result will look like.
And editing the videos will make for a very good procrastination activity / diversionary tactic to stop me getting too stressed out about the book edits. Unlike the vlog, I’m not so sure what the final edit of the novel will look like.
My plan for tomorrow is to vlog and fight and then try and write the consolidated chapters. I’d like to get into next week with the focus on line edits of the last section of the novel. That’s going to be pretty stressful and I think the vlog editing should be a good way to channel those nerves.
Of course, this all depends on how well the new chapter 1 is received. I’ll admit to being a little nervous. I thought I had it sorted before so I have no idea if this new version is even a step in the right direction.
I just wish I could be as clear about my vision for chapter one as I am about the upcoming vlogs.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels. Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.