Sunday evening on Symi, and what started as a bright and chilly day has turned into a cloudy one, slightly warmer, and with a hint of rain in the air.
We’re just back from a walk through the valley to Pedi and back up the road. (You will see in the photos, it’s all sheep, lambs, goats and the river beds washed away by the recent rains.) After several days of being inside, escaping the worst of the rain, eating and chilling out, it was good to get out of the house. It might have been a relaxing few days watching films and reading books, but it has also been a productive one for me.
I set about ‘Straight Swap’ again on Saturday morning. This is a new comedy novel I have been cooking up for a couple of years now. It is a straightforward body-swap comedy that’s not so straightforward, as it seems to be greatly inspired by places I knew when growing up, and perhaps by a few people. Not that I am going to name names, and of course I never did swap bodies with anyone when younger, or even when older. But the question is, of course, what would happen if…? And in this case what would happen if two friends, who are no longer friends, swapped bodies and experienced each other’s lives?
Not a new concept but there is a twist or two with this one. So far I have reached 25,000 words of a first draft. First drafts are usually, for me, about getting the ideas of the story down. It’s a time when I write loads of words, many of which don’t make it to draft two but all of which are useful in getting the story out of my head and onto the paper. After that it’s a case of going back and forwards making alterations. For example: I describe a place or a person in one way in chapter one and later in chapter five have a better idea and so change a detail. I note this on a sheet of paper to remind me to change it back later on, and then I mislay that piece of paper.
It doesn’t matter though because by the time I get to chapter fifteen I change that detail yet again and then add in a new thought line which takes a character off somewhere else, and so make a note in a note book this time, so I remember to change the detail back later on. And then I can’t remember which notebook it went into.
And so, when I’ve finally got to the end, I have to go back to the start and reread and make notes and make sure I keep them, and then move bits around, and change many other things and hope that everything is consistent, while still keeping it interesting, readable, logical and in this case funny. Then, after draft two is done I get Neil and/or Jenine to read it for typos and input, and then do a draft three. By this time I’m into changing only minor details and typos. Then I send it to my editor man and he goes through it as he lays it out for printing. This can take several months as he is also checking for typos, spelling mistakes and often emails me with things such as ‘Are you really sure you meant to write…?’
And then, a few years after starting, or a few months in some cases, the thing is ready to put online line and then it’s up to the reader to point out all hose typos and spelling mistakes the team may have missed.
A
