The craft of writing

 

To paraphrase Emma Darwin, “conscious craft has become intuitive craft” in my own writing.

I noticed when I did my second draft of FRIDAY NIGHT MURDER how often I had filtered the scene through the eyes of my main protagonist. I also noticed how easily I was ripping out the filtering words, without actually thinking about it.

To me this was a sign that I am improving. I also noticed how often I changed -ing endings to -ed endings. I think I even went for direct thought instead of having my chosen character think aloud. Why was he so nervous? Instead of  Jess wondered why he was so nervous.

The third draft suffered more of the same. No doubt one or two examples will have escaped the editing scissors but hey! It is a good step forward, especially since I was doing it without being told to do it or because I’d read an article somewhere.