More Progress

Am now into chapter 27 of the second edit.

The one person to read it so far (up to about chapter 10 and this being my wife!) is very happy with it and wants to read more.

I wanted to get the second edit finished by the end of March, and then have people start reading it. The reading part has at least already started, and I should, I hope, be able to do the remaining four and a half chapters by the end of the month.

What next?

Well, once I finish I think I will run through a few of the comments already from my wife, and straighten anything out that I can before getting some other friends to read it who have publishing experience. In time I will put some of the opening scenes ONLY here on this blog, and promote it by setting up a Facebook group that people can join.

When its out there, being read, I will start the process of looking for an agent/publisher, but probably in about May/June. Any time before that I will start thoughts on another book. There are a few ideas I have been working on, and I know what ever one I choose to do next will be an exciting project as they are all interesting stories.

So keep in touch, stay connected and watch this space!

Progress

Well the second edit of the book Cherry Picking is going really well. I am up to chapter 17 now but more excitingly my wife (being the first person to read it yet) has just started reading the work now, as I managed to print out the first 16 chapters yesterday!

So I'm really excited to have got to this stage - her early thoughts are what I could hope for in the book. Over the next few weeks there will be some other people who I'm getting to read the work, so now its really the test time - will it make it or won't it! If I can't captivate these people who know me (and therefore have more reason to want to read it than the average person) then it'll be hard to expect others too.

So progress on the editing front and process in general. At last!!

Let the editing begin

I finally finished the first draft in the first week of January. It came in at around 115,000 which I am happy with as a starting point.

I've now started the editing process which I am maybe four weeks into? Today I got up to chapter 9. I am finding that I am not changing major chunks of it, just checking for errors and making sure it is consistent. The first 6 chapters or so had been written up to about three years ago I think so that's a long time for things to change.

I was really looking forward to this phase of things, though at the moment with the majority of the way still to go it is a little hard going. Once I get to about chapter 20 I guess the end is in sight so that should motivate me enough to press on for the finish.

If I could get it done by around March that would leave a good amount of time for the next stage of things to get done before the summer, which is still when I would like to have something ready to send to an agent and/or publisher.

So things press on. Progress is slow but moving along.

Cherry Picking - Update 2 - Meet some of the Characters

I feel very happy with the quality and depth of characters that have emerged in my book Cherry Picking. There is a lot of cross over between some of them and the relationships and tensions that now exist between them all is really interesting and gives me a lot of scope to write about.

And if the book is indeed to become a film one day as I hope and expect it too, then that would leave some really juicy parts for any actor or actress to take on.

The main characters are Nigel Gamble, Brendan Charles, Robert Sandle, Tommy Lawrence and Jessica Ponter.

I feel like I've really got to know these 5 'people' over the last few years. There's a lot too each character and I hope that this will come out through the pages of Cherry Picking.

Nigel & Robert are the characters that change the most and know the most throughout the book - this is the key 'confrontation' that a lot of the book is based around and it pulls in all these others in one way of the other.

Nigel is hugely wealthy and Brendan works for him having been recruited twenty years ago and been Nigel's 'public' face ever since.

Tommy works within one of Brendan's companies having been told top recruit him by Nigel. Though there's a bit of an age gap between him and Jessica, they had a close relationship which changes throughout the book. Jessica is about ten years younger than Tommy but she loves him deeply. A beautiful and talented young woman in her own right, she too was pulled into the Nigel Gamble empire by Brendan and now also works for him.

Each of the five main characters have an angle and reason to be weary of the other characters and this I hope only builds and adds to the intrigue.

Please sign up to this blog so that I can keep you informed over things as they develop as well nearer the time put some of the book exclusively here for you to read.

Cherry Picking - Update 1

Well, it's December now 2008 and I have written about 60,000 words of the book. I started Chapter 19 of the book today, in first draft form. I guess once I edit it it may well change places in the book, who knows.

I still hope that I am on track.

I aim to get all the first draft down by the end of this month (aghh!) and then spend the next six months doing at first a 2nd edit where I'll add in a lot of detail (4 months work I think) before it's ready to be read for the first time by anyone where I'll pull the comments together to do a 3rd draft which I hope to be ready for the publishers by next summer?

Am I mad? Optimistic? Well, time will tell.

But I'm still very happy about the project and excited about finishing it...one day.

Welcome - New Start and New Book - CHERRY PICKING

Thank you for visiting this new blog which focuses on my writing side.

Please feel free to add this site to your favorites or to subscribe to it in order to get the updates.

The book I'm working on now is called 'Cherry Picking'.

It's an action/thriller and I hope to have it finished and published by the end of 2009. Contact me or visit back here in time as I'll be putting some snippets from the book exclusively here and only here.

I'm very excited by the prospect of finishing Cherry Picking. It's style best illustrates what I call '3D writing', and is the way I think & write best. It's when a story is multi levelled. As you read you realise there is a depth to the story and you suddenly understand.
Some examples of film's that I've enjoyed that have done the same are 'Frequency' & 'The Sixth Sense'.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing your comments once you read my work.

Tim Heath