My working title for this issue was "The Glacial Pace of Edits" but things are picking up!

Writing

I continue to work on the seemingly endless edit of my novel, although the end is getting closer and closer, with just some forty pages to go as of this moment. If only page counts were a reliable measure, for I’ve recently spent the better part of a day turning the simple note “too much exposition” into something I’m happy with. Other pages have minor or no changes at all. There will be no way to know what an "average page" takes until I'm done, which is kind of useless.

I think a lot of writers must have a love-hate relationship with editing, often simultaneously. Fixing this last “too much exposition” has been difficult as the revision has highlighted aspects of my characters that need some serious thinking through, to try to get their voices right. At the same time the changes have set up an unanticipated fix for another problem that has been nagging at me for some time. My characters have told me how they’re going to approach the problem, which gives me confidence the solution will fit the story. I’ve seen many authors talk about how their characters fill in the story; it’s fascinating to see how the mind can build a model for a character and then start to anticipate what they’d do in ways we didn’t quite expect.

The other rewarding part of editing is something I mentioned in our most recent podcast. When applying a change from markups I’ve made to the printed version, I have a tendency to read on and make more changes, getting ahead of the markups on my hard copy. When I go back to the printout, I often find the same changes. This is remarkably satisfying. I figure if the change I make today is the same as the one I wanted to make on the page months ago, then I must finally have the right words.

As painful and rewarding as this process is, I hope to finish this round Real Soon Now. Once that’s complete there are some scenes I need to add to fill in some gaps in the story, followed by an edit pass on those parts and the ending to arrive at a second draft. Then OMG. Then a professional story editor gets to look at it and find all the places where it needs work. The hope is that I’ve polished the manuscript to the point where that feedback is minor, but there will be anxiety, fear that it will come back awash in red ink, that the whole thing is a mess and I couldn’t see it. That’s probably an irrational fear but it’s no less real.

Can*Con is a “Maybe Not” this Year

Back in March I got myself an early bird ticket for Can*Con, Ottawa’s science fiction and fantasy conference. Then when the block of hotel rooms came up I missed the notification. By the time I found out, they had been snapped up. As an additional complication our family car is needed for something else that weekend. I have to admit that five months ago I was pretty darn sure I’d have something resembling a finished manuscript in hand by October and the fact that I won’t is more than a little demotivating. Sure, there are still good reasons to attend. Most of them have to do with meeting people and making connections, and my neurodivergence makes that something that’s not easy for me unless I have something beyond “I’m working on a book” to talk about. Finding alternate transport and suitable accommodations seems like a lot of trouble when there’s a good chance I’d spend most of my time sitting in a common area reading and wishing I wasn’t there.

Something might change, but as it stands, my ticket is going to be a donation to the conference. 2027, here I come, book in hand. (I had better have a [swearing] book in hand by then!) Sigh.

Now with Even More Socials

This will be old news for those of you who get my blog updates emailed to you. Over the past month, I’ve set up an account on TikTok, although I haven’t taken the time to make much use of it yet. I’ve also set up some channels on Matrix, which is “an open network for secure, decentralized communication.” I say it’s like Discord except without the profiling and annoying user experience. Details on both can be found on my “All the links” page at https://alanlangford.com/places.

Once I know the novel is on a semi-predictable timeline (sometime after the story edit is done) I’ll start being more active on channels like Bluesky, Instagram, and TikTok to start getting the word out. Meanwhile Mastodon is more about conversations. I’ll be mentioning the book there, but limiting how much promotion I do. I expect Matrix will be similar but I’ve set it up with controlled access, which I hope will let me create a welcoming space that’s free of bots and spammers.

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