One down

I finished reediting Goodnight Irene. It has been a fascinating process. Aside from sentence structure and formatting, there were two main areas I marked for improvement. The first was strengthening the clues. I mentioned in an earlier post that the clues in GI were timid. This has been rectified — particularly the basis for the dying clue. The funny thing is that none of this involved underlining facts. Weaving them into the narrative works wonderfully. This is something I’ve gotten better at, and it was satisfying to apply my current knowledge to an older work.

The other needed improvement was characterization. While I do think there were strong parts of this in the 2018 verions, there were also wild, uncharachteristic moments — especially with Rowan Manory. I have streamlined his process. At every moment, I have considered what he knows, what he suspects, and what he cannot understand. I can imagine myself in 2018 thinking that making him manic was adding depth or creating an interesting moment. He makes more sense now. I also improved Margaret and Charles a great deal. They are more involved in the story. And I made Walter a bit smarter. He has more than one flash of inspiration now.

The novel was never long, but now it is 1000 words shorter. While some might argue that I’ve taken away some flavor, I am convinced that I have trimmed useless fat. For better or worse, this is now a well-oiled detective novel.

The next project is The Opening Night Murders. I reread the book over the weekend, and I am happy to say that the editing will be complementary rather than a massive overhaul. I was particularly delighted with the functionality of the red herrings. True, there is a little whiplash involved, but that why a few tinkerings here and there are all that is necessary to smooth the emotional arcs. When I opened up the file, I was afraid of discovering a broken plot. Not at all. This is a noirish character study and I aim to keep it that way.

That being said, here are some of the changes I envision.

1. A diagram of the murder weapon and more foundation for its existence. It’s not a terribly realistic method and needs a visual explanation to work for the reader.
2. A new playbill.
3. More foundation for the supporting characters, particularly Grizz and Timothy. Their roles in the story need strengthening.

There may be more changes that I will come to realize during the process, but these are the major ones I know right now. I suspect TONM might have the fewest overall changes when I’m finally finished. It is my favorite of my novels, so that makes sense. I especially was pleased with the side characters.

I’ll be ordering an author’s copy of the new GI soon and I’ll share. I’m not sure if I’ll make the books live as I finish them or wait until they are all done.