Last week I had a Zoom meeting with my editor about the draft of my second novel, by the end of which both of us were on the same page about what needs to be done for the next draft. This will take me through the summer and into September, after which the next book should be well on track.
Because I tend to obsessively go over any piece of work again and again before I submit it, any editorial feedback can sometimes feel quite destabilising. It's one of the most essential parts of the process though - you need that second set of eyes to look at your story and point out where the pace flags, where some characters need to be brought up in the mix and others turned down, or where themes need further refining. For me, the flipside of obsessively polishing a novel before submitting it is that as soon as I get feedback I can instantly veer in the other direction, ruthlessly cutting out swathes of text that no longer seem essential. It's a fine balance, but that process of redrafting can also be one of the most pleasurable in this whole strange business of writing and publishing a novel. Getting into the meat of the thing, seeing how the bones and the nervous system all fit together, makes you feel like some feverish Dr Frankenstein. At the end of it all, you might wince when you notice all the sutures and joins, but at least the creature lives.
So, as the summer begins, I have in front of me a print-out of the typescript, and I look on it with a cold and merciless heart. The body is before me; let us see if I can give it life.