Christy English

The Victory of a Finished Draft

Saturday, May 16th, 2009 | The Writing Life | No Comments

Finally, I have implemented all the notes my editor gave me. Finally, I have completed the newest draft.

I have no doubt that once my editor goes over it, The Queen’s Pawn will need a few more changes. I am meticulous, but out of a 510 page novel, I may have missed something. Also, I am so close to this novel, after having worked on it for almost three years, that something may yet be unclear to the reader. If there are flaws left,  my editor will catch them on her next pass. And when she does, I will fix them.

But I adore this book. I have loved it from the first moment I began the first draft in June of 2006. Fresh to New York, not yet at a day job, I sat in the garden of The Cloisters museum in New York City and outlined that novel. The novel has changed and grown in ways I never anticipated that day, but as I look back on all the time I spent refining and polishing, throwing scenes out and starting all over again, I am filled with nothing but triumph, an almost complete sense of victory. 

Monday, I will be back in the chair once more, beginning the outline of my next novel To Be Queen, about the early life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. But for a day, I am going to sit on my laurels, and enjoy the knowledge that I have served Eleanor and Alais well.

Patience is a Virtue and Irony is a Hoot

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 | The Writing Life | 1 Comment

Ironic. The same day I wrote my last post, wondering where my notes were from my editor, she sent the manuscript to me, with notes attached. I have spent the last weeks working on my novel, and I am very happy with my progress. I have a new deadline, and it is good to know that The Queen’s Pawn is going to be worlds better for all the wonderful notes Claire has given me.

I have not mentioned her name before, but my editor is Claire Zion, and she is a genius.

So please be patient, and stay tuned to my blog. I have stories to tell you about my trip to Paris, where I looked at Philippe Auguste’s Louvre and Louis VII’s Notre Dame.