It’s been a long haul since my last post! I attended Byron Writers Festival and I asked a question during a panel discussion about “when do you know your novel is done”? One of the speakers absolutely laid into me, telling me in no uncertain terms that I had to stop thinking that writing a novel was all about just writing, and it was time for me to get my hands dirty and engage in some serious editing work!
He made me laugh, actually, because I really didn’t feel that I’d been that lazy. But it was also a useful kick up the backside. My story is picked up by Laurel Cohn who wrote about the encounter further. I am that “Woman in the turquoise jacket” in her piece on p16-17 of the Northerly:
Laurel and I had such a good chat that I ended up engaging her services. She proved an inspiration, reviewing my manuscript and giving me some very valuable pointers. She also invited me along to her Structural Editing course. What a boon! The course was fantastic, but I’ve walked away with a lot of homework.