Structural Edits and a cheeky request…

Greetings all, today we bring you the third in Miranda Dickinson's series of pieces for us here on the authonomy blog. (If you need to catch up, have a quick read of her first and second blogs) Miranda's first novel will be published in November, having been picked up from authonomy a few months ago.

At last I’ve been able to tick something off my Scary Schedule of Doooom…

I submitted my ‘Structural Edit’ last week, after spending the past six weeks editing and writing new scenes for my novel. Whilst the name of this edit sounds scary (or like the latest celebrity cosmetic surgery procedure!), the process was actually enormous fun. I’ve added more stories of the customers who visit Kowalski’s Florists’ Shop, more scenes in New York locations and tidied up parts of the novel that, to be honest, I hadn’t really looked at for a couple of years. My favourite new scene is a Hollywood movie-style happy ending for one of my supporting characters – though I say it myself, it’s some of the best writing I’ve produced and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. From a completely selfish point of view, it’s been fantastic to be able to revisit my characters – and New York, of course. Expanding the amount of locations for my story has meant happy hours spent researching lesser-known bits of the city and grilling my friends who have been lucky enough to visit (I’m still waiting for my opportunity to get there – maybe later this year I’ll actually do it!) Hopefully, all this will add to the sense of everyday life in the Big Apple in my story. Finishing the manuscript last year, I was surprised at how utterly bereft I felt leaving my characters the other side of ‘The End’ – so it was great to pop back for a while and hang out with Rosie, Ed, Nate, Celia, Marnie et al.

Having said that, submitting my manuscript for the second time was ridiculously scarier than it was the first time. I think this is because when I sent Kowalski’s to Avon last year I honestly didn’t think that I would hear back from them – let alone anything else. This time, much more is relying on the structural edit being good enough – and I felt the weight of that responsibility resting heavily on my shoulders throughout the process, although this was entirely self-imposed!

Another thing I was completely unprepared for was how exhausting it would be. Once the edit was safely in my editor Sammia’s inbox and six weeks’ worth of adrenalin began to subside, I found myself mentally and physically bushed… The only thing that I can compare it to, is the way I feel the week after a gig: I’m a singer-songwriter in my spare time and I perform both on my own and with a wedding band – the week after a big wedding gig, you feel as if you’ve been run over by a herd of elephants driving trucks… It was crazy! My poor boyfriend, Bob, went from seeing me as a wide-eyed, manic typist (who, he says, became progressively non-blinking as the weeks passed) to a sleepy, slow-moving zombie, incapable of intelligent conversation and journeys anywhere more strenuous than a brave shuffle to Cafe Nero… I have to say, however, that the fabulous Bobster has been amazing – supplying me with endless mugs of coffee, cooking for me at weekends and encouraging me every time the enormity of the task hit me full on and made me doubt whether I was up to the challenge. He’s going to take my author photo for the inside cover of my book, which is brilliant (apart from me now being intensely paranoid about my weight – hence lots of veggies and brisk walks at the moment!) My editor found out that he’s a keen cook (I think the current term is ‘gastro-sexual’), so she sent him some cookery books from HarperCollins, which he’s chuffed to bits about – hopefully one perk to compensate for the rollercoaster of dating a writer!

So now, while I wait for my editor to send over my line edits I’m busy working on Book 2, reading travel books again – although this time, it’s not just one destination I’m researching… One of my main characters is a former world traveller who worked his way around the globe for ten years, so the world is, quite literally, my oyster for this story! This is where the cheeky request comes in: I’m ‘collecting’ travel stories for this character – I want him to be the kind of guy who has a wealth of anecdotes that begin with, “I remember the time I was in…” So, if you have any travel stories, local recipes or anecdotes for anywhere in the world, please get in touch - comment below if you like - as I would love to hear them!

Right… Just off to Greece for a spot of island-hopping – from the comfort of my study, of course!

Miranda x