Progress Report (3) A Death in Spring

Thank God for word processors and cut and paste. How did the great writers of yesteryear ever finish anything? Patience and hard work I hear you shout.

Anyway, today I reached the magic 50,000 words.

I then decided to eliminate one theme in the story. This I think will produce a much more focused story line. It also has the advantage that the unused element can be recycled as the basis for Part 3 in The Handsworth Quartet.

The willingness to cut lumps out of wonderfully wild creation is I think an essential part of writing. Yes you have to be creative and write what is in your mind. But in the course of writing there are many occasions when you have to say; Does this add to the story or am I just trying to complicate things to show how cleaver I am? If it's the latter cut it out like you would a gangrenous leg. Otherwise it will kill your story.

Rewrite done I ended the day still above 50,000 words at 50,176. So like my heroes I had a cuppa and a fig roll to celebrate and watched The Martian for the second time. Really looking forward to the next Jason Bourne film - Matt's back.

Best wishes,

Jim