Sitting there, happily proofing the text for a future book in the "Kyre"" series...

There I was, doing a second or third read of a future book in my Realms of Kyre series. It’s several years since I wrote it; and a couple of years since I assembled the separate chapters into single-book form, and read through it, doing a chapters grid of events, places, etc.

Should have been fairly straightforward, going over all the printoff alterations I'd made; checking the flow of the on-screen narration, the realism of the speech, the balance of “show & tell”, etc. And it was going alright.

Until I came across four pages of notes I’d scribbled out a year or two back.

Shuggeration, did they mess up my day/half a week so far.

The note, in effect, said “This bit is boring. It needs an almighty showdown – bloodbath.” And there were the scribbled-out jottings for it. Four pages to insert, weave in; prepare for, or take account of; test the repercussions, etc.

Oh, boy, has there been some re-writing. Change of emphasis of the rest of the book; loss of some likeable characters; creating a more intense and involving focus to the book; having to consider the last fifty pages with this development very much in mind.

I mean – four pages, and I’d forgotten about it! Probably sitting in the garden one sunny day. (Not in the bath, my usual place for scribbling – there’s no sign of any splashes.)

But, such a discovery becomes an unexpected and almost traumatic time if: a) you’re the sort of writer who becomes involved writer – I felt as if I’d been thrown in the deep end. And b) the weather is as oppressive as it has been this week.

Getting over it now, and hoping the book will be better for it. At least I wasn’t tempted to throw the notes away when I realised how much of a nuisance this was going to be. The things we put ourselves through for our art, eh?

And now on AUDIOBOOKS, too