Clee Hill: Blog

To all those readers who spot goofs, slip-ups, and other grammatical and linguistic incoherencies and bring them to my attention so that I can fix them, please accept my humble thanks.

Maddeningly, because I can always find one way or another to revise a text, I run so close to my personal deadlines in terms of editing and proofing that there isn't really any way I could get an editor in to over-look my work and still hit those deadlines.

This, then, leaves me in the difficult position of being my own proof-reader, never the best role for the writer to be in, as I often read what I had intended or what I remember rather than what is on the screen in front of me.

When the chapters were shorter than the more recent ones, this wasn't such a problem as I could parse a text in a few hours. However, with recent chapters getting longer and longer - partly an authorial indulgence as I enjoy having Luke and Stef running around in my head, as well as those characters and events still to come - the number of goofs is steadily increasing. Thankfully it is nowhere close to becoming something that throws the reader out of the text, but it is frustrating to me.

Consequently, at least for the next chapter, I shall try working the text in sections rather than as one humungous document, and see if that reduces the goof rate. When those sections are complete, I shall then bolt them back together when it comes time to upload the next day's events. Given that there is a certain timetable of what happens over the course of the three weeks or so that cover Book One, I don't really see how it would work if I were to upload those sections individually, as each day is meant to have its own impact, both in terms of plot and also character.

We'll see.

CH

This fortnight's new chapter just went into the submissions queue, so my same request as always: if anyone spots a goof, let me know and I'll post a fix as soon as I can.

This is an interesting chapter, in that Luke's weird little Thing gives up one of its secrets, but in the process makes things more confusing for him too.

Also, after a little internal debating, I decided to flip on the 'voyeurism' tag, not for what is watched, but for how much someone enjoys listening. Would that make it 'aureurism'?

Anyhoo, it's another big read, lots of wordplay, plenty of interactions between Luke and Stef, and more of a presence from the parents too, but not like that.

Cheers...CH

This chapter has been an interesting combination of fun and hard work.

The hard work part is simply that when I wrote the original first draft of these chapters, this chapter really only served one plot purpose, and so the word count was just under 1,900.

Much too Brief.

So, heading back in for what was almost a version 1.5 of the text, I got to have a load of fun adding in a lot more plot, move a plot point up by a day, and mess around with my favourite characters, sprinkling a little humour along the way.

I'm also, partially due to feedback but also due to awareness of cliches and conventions, have not only added in a lot more of the parents, but am also making sure the Mum is not the all-knowing Mum and Dad is not the clueless-one of yore.

The next pass through the text will be the heavy lifting in terms of smoothing all those new elements out, after which there'll be the usual language, spelling, and grammar pass to make sure everything sounds right.

All things being equal, this chapter should upload on schedule on Sunday.

And that 1,900 words? Now clocking 15,000.

CH

Just into the queue is the latest in the story of Luke and Stef.

But the next chapter? That should be interesting. Somehow, when I was first drafting all of this a couple of months ago, this was a really short chapter. I mean, really short. Which, in a funny way, is good for me, because it means that instead of going over things I've already gone through once, I get to insert a whole new day into the lives of the siblings about half way through their story.

So, I'm still intending to make my fortnightly schedule, but this week's writing will be more writing than reviewing and expanding.

And, knowing Stef and Luke as I do, that's not a bad way for me to spend my week either.

CH

The latest chapter just went into the upload queue.

More of the same, but this time Stef asks Luke "Can I touch?" and all sorts of things progress from there.

As ever, if you spot a self-editing goof, let me know and I'll fix it up.

Onwards!

CH