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Many thanks to those who responded to my request for a volunteer. From the responses to the specific question I asked, I think I have a clearer idea of what I want to do.
I'll post an update on that in the coming days/weeks.
I'm looking for a volunteer to read an unfinished, very rough, unpolished manuscript, in order to answer one question that I have about it. The manuscript is almost 170,000 words, and you will need to be familiar with the four existing books in the Paul Robertson Saga.
I'm not looking for an editor or 'beta-reader' per se - I just have one very specific question that I want someone else's opinion on.
Drop me a DM if this is something you're interested in helping with. Thanks.
It’s been over a month since my last post, and for a good reason. I’ve been focusing all my spare energy on the fifth Paul Robertson novel—tentatively titled A Loving Light—and have made some significant progress. This title ties in with the ending of “A Healing Love,” directly referencing the song that is at the heart of the book’s climax.
My manuscript is currently over 95,000 words long. It picks up the story directly after the end of the last book, with a time jump from Wednesday to the following weekend. Although it only covers about two weeks of Paul’s life, these are two weeks of enormous change and significance. So much so, that I’ll be re-evaluating the time scale in the next draft. I need to ensure that this amount of change over such a short period feels realistic to the reader.
Currently, I believe it is because of all the things that happen to trigger those changes in Paul. We’re finally seeing the man Paul is destined to become and the crucible of events that forges him. He is forced to accept the responsibilities that come with his wealth and with the ‘mission’ that he’s given himself to do something good with it. We’re seeing him build a true ‘team’ around him, and I really, really, like some of the new characters I’ve introduced that are part of that team.
Paul also grapples with the stark contrast between his mundane student life…and the high-stakes world of business he’s now entered.
And, of course, readers will see Paul slowly begin to realise what many of you have no doubt already realised—just who the song “Love’s Light” is about. We’re seeing Paul finally see the ‘silent hopeful tenderness’ in her eyes and the ‘gentle love’ she holds in her hands.
As always, writing a narrative like this presents a few challenges. One of those is that one arc of this novel is screaming out for a spin-off to continue that particular narrative in Paul’s absence. The other big issue is going to be, where do I end this novel? At this 95,000-word point, Paul is so, so close to making the breakthrough we as readers need him to make. But the simple resolution and reveal of who Paul’s wife from the ‘future’ prologues is, won’t, in and of itself, make a satisfying ending—there are too many loose ends that will need to be tidied up.
There are some scenes that I’m itching to write, which will tie up some of those threads. However, I think the narrative arc that’s crying out for a spin-off needs Paul’s direct involvement to resolve. This is crucial to bring his epic journey to a place where I can confidently tell you, the reader, that he’s in a good place. That he’s a very early version of the man he will become, but the rest of his journey through life is his and his alone—your time with him is now over.
That said, who knows, maybe I’ll need to revisit Paul in the future. Perhaps pick up his story again a few years down the line. Marriage? Kids? How do they affect him? What happens to his businesses?
Or maybe Paul becomes a supporting character in someone else’s future novel, in much the same way that Will and Chloe have become supporting characters in Paul’s story.
I don’t know. That’s for the future. For now, I want to wrap up Paul’s story in a satisfying way. And I’m happy to report that I’m well on the way to doing that.
It looks like I accidentally marked A Healing Love as Complete when I submitted today's chapter a couple of weeks ago.
To be clear, it's not complete, there are half a dozen chapters to go.
I've asked the admins to change it and mark it as in progress again.
One thing I noticed while working on the first draft of ‘A Healing Love’ is how much my writing has evolved since 2011, when ‘A Good Man’ was completed. Fourteen years is a long time, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.
Of course, ‘better’ is subjective, but to me it means that my writing is more ‘mature’ and less naive. Additionally, having spent a considerable amount of time with these characters, I now understand them much better than I did previously.
So I decided to improve the quality of the writing in ‘A Good Man’ to match the standard of ‘A Healing Love.’ I can do this, of course, because I am not ‘traditionally’ published, so I am in complete creative control over my work and can do with it whatever I like.
It’s a challenging task. I don’t want to alter the narrative—the story’s plot. My aim is to enhance the ‘quality’ and ‘maturity’ of the prose and dialogue, while also adding some details that foreshadow future events in the series where possible.
As I write, I’ve reviewed and updated forty-one of the forty-seven chapters in the book (excluding the prologue and epilogue). I’m truly proud of some of the revisions I’ve made.
For example, the scene between Paul and Will in chapters nineteen and twenty is now much more emotionally impactful and portrays Will more convincingly as Paul’s “surrogate father.” The whiskey tasting, in particular, has been completely transformed into something truly profound.
Similarly, all the intimate scenes between Paul and Clarissa are now more rooted in the emotion of each encounter, rather than the mechanics of where body parts went, which, to me, makes them much more satisfying.
You can find the updated chapters on SOL. When I’ve finished updating the whole book, I’ll issue an updated copy to Amazon and the other e-book stores. I can’t wait for you to experience this enhanced version of the first steps on Paul’s epic coming-of-age journey.
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