Here We Go Again – The Climb #253

Sunday 1^st October 2017

So my September break is now over and tonight I’ve dived back into book 2 to start work on the second draft.
In many ways, this forced break has been a bit torturous. Sometimes I think I need a stress to keep my mind off other stresses, and without a book to worry about I’ve found myself getting stressed with the day job and swordfighting and worries about book 1.
I went through chapter 1 tonight. The aim is really to turn the book into something readable, whilst addressing any plot issues. I know I need to draw out some of the secondary characters and there are a couple of scenes which need a total rewrite.
I’m always a bit rusty when I first dive into a project so I was working in spates of 10 minutes rather than spending a solid hour or two. Yet I managed to get the chapter done.
I say done, but I think there are some things I want to change. The book opens on an action sequence and I think some of the action is a bit too similar to what happens later in the book. So I want to change it around a bit and rewrite about a 3^rd of this chapter. I think it’ll work better.
I always feel like I’m flailing in the dark when I edit. I’m never quite sure what I’m looking for or supposed to be doing. It used to be that I felt I was pushing words around on the page, but having done some edits on Black as Knight, I have a bit of a better idea.
Upon completing the first draft of Book 2, I had a stronger idea of the themes and arcs, so I want to build those up a bit more. But for the most part it’s looking at the big structural stuff. That doesn’t mean I’m not cutting clunky sentences or making the prose a bit snappier, but that’s very much secondary.
I’m hoping that this book won’t take as many drafts as Book 1… but then I look at how much I’ve levelled up through the various drafts of Black as Knight and suspect that maybe this book won’t be quite so involved. Who knows?
But for now, I don’t need it to be perfect. I just need it to be good. And to do that I have to trust what past me was trying to do in draft 1, along with trusting current me who’s going to try and take that and make it better.
I haven’t set any timescales for getting this work done. In many ways it’s really just to take my mind off the edits of Black as Knight. At some point, something will happen with that, but I suspect that the book 2 draft will be done before I need to do any serious amount of work on it.
It also took my mind off my swordfighting today. I didn’t feel I fenced well. I’m left wondering whether I’ve levelled up my expectations of myself or if I was really off form. Having seen such spectacular growth this summer there’s part of me that’s hungry for further improvement. I see loads of people get frustrated when progress comes in fits and starts rather than continuously, but I think we all need to have a bit of patience.
I know the real answer is to step things up. If I’ve learnt one thing over the years it’s that things get harder the better you do. Everyone makes the mistake in thinking they get easier. They take their foot off the pedal and then wonder why people are overtaking them.
I know in terms of everything I’m trying to achieve I need to step it up. The hard things have become easier so now I can do harder things. It’s just like lifting weights. What was once a struggle becomes routine, but that doesn’t mean you can drop the weights. Instead you need to up them more.
So despite starting work on the edits, I’m ending the weekend feeling a little flat. October is going to be a difficult month for me personally and I know I just need to accept that and weather it as best I can. I need to remind myself that I’ve achieved so much this year. I set out my goals, declared them to everyone and delivered. That’s something I should be very proud of.
Now, to bury myself in the edits.
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