Editing Wilma’s Tulip Field Days is fun. I really didn’t know where this book would take me but it led me on an adventure of about 21,000 words. I am now in the editing process, a mixed blessing.
Yeah Nah
Kiwis answer the above to almost any question. And it would be my reply to “Do you like editing?” No, it is not the most creative process. And yes, when I am completely focussed and into the flow, it becomes majestic. Now you have all your characters worked out, you know what they look like, how they dress, how they speak, it’s funny to see how they were in the beginning. It’s also fun to go through the story and make sure the characters on the page are all how they should be, or develop along the story line.
I heard an interview with Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) the other day and she was explaining how Robin was finally becoming Strike’s equal in The Running Grave and the way she explained it, was as if Robin was a real person. I caught myself because of course Robin is a real person who exists in a book.
Wilma, of course, existed in real life. I gave her fictional adventures along the real ones in the book, but the humans were all real and what she saw us humans do, did happen, more or less. In the prequel there was nothing I knew, so it’s all fiction. Stragna Woman, Tattoo Rob and the farmhands Old Pete and his son Young Bert, they all live in the book.
Can’t be
I started out with one premise. Wilma was born on a tulip farm They are all over the place where I found Wilma. And the story took off after bumping into a lady on my daily walk who inspired the character of Stragna Woman. She is not factually her, she can’t be, I know nothing about her other than she laughed in my face when I said hello to her. I blogged about that encounter if you want to find out more.
Editing also requires walking to gain a clear head. So after I have taken my homeopathic hayfever meds, I will be on my way. I hope you can all get out today as well! Would love to hear where your walk led you.
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