You can edit and edit and edit, and each time you do you will find something to change. But the time comes when you must let go. Sometimes this is hard to do. You want it to be perfect, but also you have become so accustomed to being with your characters that you don't want to let them go. They have become your friends. They keep on growing in your mind and you feel you must stay with them. But your deadline is fast approaching. What do you do if you suddenly discover something about your main character which has a dynamic effect on the whole story, and on the other characters?
Easy. You get up at 5.30 every morning, and you work day and night, and you allow this change to happen because it will make the book twice as good as it was. You can't help yourself. You have to do it. And when you've finished you feel as though every extra minute you have spent on it has been worth while. All the effort has made you a better writer.
I am at that stage now with PINPOINT. A new powerful and vital plotpoint presented itself. And I knew I had to make the change. But it wasn't only one change. This one change had a ripple effect that became a gigantic wave effect, but oh how exciting it has become.
I know now that in all my future novels I must not let them go too soon. I must edit and re-edit, until I know every nuance of the characters and the plot. And I must not shun a total re-write if I can see how powerful the result of the change will be.
PINPOINT WILL BE PUBLISHED BY NIGHT PUBLISHING IN 2011, IN PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK
