I am busy working through the second draft of book two and although, I’m loving it, I am finding it sooooooooo hard. I mean, there are so many loose ends to tie up, so many things to think about that I fear my head will explode.
Book two is based around homeless teenage tearaways, female fatales, living together in a kindof halfway house on the Mitchell Estate. For this draft I have had to research drugs, teen pregnancy, teen alcohol abuse, miscarriage, knife crime, suicide and court injunctions. Some of the programs I watch on the television make the Bloke from Stoke look at me in a very peculiar way.
For example, I watched Tears, Lies and Videotapes. I watched a harrowing film made by a 34 year old heroin addict who filmed his angst, eventually dying (that was one of the most compelling, yet graphic things I have watched and I sobbed my heart out). I watched a series of programs about teen pregnancies, teen alcohol abuse and teen obesity. I’m watching the program tonight on self harm. No wonder I am stressing so much!
After reading through the first draft, I came up with a list of 122 bullet points. Some of them are really simple. Others are really silly. Others, I haven’t got a clue what I meant when I was in reading mode. Here are just a few of them
Book needs to be four months at the most. May – August
Need a better nickname for Squarehead
Page 142 what size will the baby be and how many weeks is she?
Page 154 – too many elevens? Becky was 11 when her mum died. Oh no, she was 7
Page 165 INJUNCTIONS need to find out about them
Page 170 – Paddy never hit Maggie unless they fought together but it would be no more than slaps
Remove Ricky the Rabbit – page 172
Before page 228 chapter 24, Becky and Jess do drugs, Becky has a bad do. Afterwards, Jess confides in her, telling her she is frightened and doesn’t want to turn out like Cheryl, selling her body to feed her habit and dead at 18? This is when Becky and Jess finally become friends
Page 239 need a name of pub
Page 279 can I get Kev with the knife in his hand as a chapter end?
Page 283, Mark’s surname. Have I got two Marks?????? Change one of them
Page 291 is she alive? Can I make this into a chapter end?
Page 333 – Austin needs to say that he dumped the body in the canal
Page 343 but did she? If so, it needs to be altered to remove (look at page 345 printed out)
Page 359 mention all the different bruises and injuries people have
After all that, I then have to show it to people. Once I have made sense of it all, I need to see if others can too. It is easy to write what you know, but do others understand what you were trying to say?
Ohmigod! Does it ever get easier?????