“I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them."

 "I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

I can always count on Mark Twain to make me smile!

Feedback on one's work is sometimes hard to take. Partly because the feedback doesn't very often dwell on the bits that the reviewers like (if any) but only the bits that they want to chew up and spit out...and also because it can show a very limited understanding of what one is (I am!) trying to achieve...

So I've written, following the brief (I think) a quite poignant and gritty drama. I get this feedback: "There is not much humour in it. We think it should start with a joke."

 Oh how I laughed!

But I'm a professional writer. I can take it. I can rewrite according to their wishes.

I'd hate to think that my skull was in danger of being beaten with my own shin bone...

How much rewriting do you do?

Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.

 
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?

Hemingway: Getting the words right.

(From "The Art of Fiction," The Paris Review Interview, 1956)

So - I'm into my third rewrite of Of Night And Light...only thirty six to go. Actually, if I'm honest, it's not so much of a rewrite but a checking through of the previous rewrite before I send it off again.

It's scary how much I like what I've written. That is NOT, by the way, arrogance. Other writers will understand, I'm sure.

However...

by Banksie

Like a kick in the butt, the force of events wakes slumberous talents.

I'm not sure who Edward Hoagland is - let me check - an American author best known for his nature and travel writing...but I bet he wasn't referring to the same sort of kick in the butt that I received earlier this morning.

It was my own silly fault for getting between two geldings arguing about hay in the field. I only worked out which one got me by the size of the hoofprint on my backside!

The dimensions of a dinner plate...

Spot!


To be completely honest, it didn't actually hurt that much but I'm hoping for an impressive bruise.

My slumberous talents were certainly wakened.

Now I must use them to carry on with the rewrite!

Half way there, page wise, but I'm getting to the part where the storyline needs a rethink...

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

Elmore Leonard. I need some of his...whatever it is...determination, pragmatism, perseverance, striving for perfection...today.

For over a month now I've been in possession of really valuable, constructive notes from a published author who definitely knows what she's talking about. She's reviewed Of Night And Light (the novel) for me and I think I agree with every single one of her suggestions - and that's not just me being biddable. It was, at the same time, hugely heartening to sense her genuine enjoyment of my work.

In fairness to me, since I received those notes I've been inordinately busy...but now I'm not. For the past three or four days I've been finding lots of different things that needed doing before I started the rewrite.

Urgently.

I've run out of those as well.

Farrah Penn

Here are my excuses:

I do have the feeling, when I've put my heart and soul into a long piece of writing, that I've given my all. I do worry that a rewrite may make it lose its passion and freshness. I am concerned that I'll begin to hate it, every bit of the story and the characters I've so lovingly created.

But most of all, it seems like a...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                lonely slog.

But hey, I have the choice. I could NOT rewrite and it will never get published!

 OR...