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REWRITING
I like to read gendre novels – suspense, mysteries and thrillers. I devour the work of people like James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, and John Sanford. One of the authors whose work I regularly read is Joseph Finder.
Finder’s latest book, Buried Secrets, had a special surprise for me, one that hit close to home. I felt like the climax of this novel was taking place right here in my hometown Rindge, NH (Pine Ridge in the book). My suspicion was confirmed when I read the acknowledgements page and found a thank you to Rindge Police Chief Michael Sielicki.
I mentioned my discovery to Assistant Library Director Debra Qualey and she spread the word. Library Director Diane Gardenour contacted Mike Sielicki, who got back in touch with Finder, who agreed to come speak to local folk and do some book signing at an event at the library on Nov. 1.
Getting some extra mileage out of the trip from Boston, he also spoke to students at Franklin Pierce University, located in Rindge.
Among the many things he had to say about the craft of novel writing was this: he always revises a printed copy of his manuscripts, and never does those whole manuscript revisions on the computer. He said the eye makes excuses for errors on the computer screen and sees what the brain wants to see, not necessarily what is actually there.
This validates my own experience, writing my as yet unpublished novels Beyond Bethlehem and The Road Through Success.
At first when I made a copy of my novel(s) it wasn’t done until I felt I had made my revisions. I waited until I thought I was done because printing was a fairly expensive proposition – some twenty bucks or so in paper and printer cartridges. I was just downright loath to mark up something valuable with corrections and notes and changes.
But after a half-dozen or more hard copies per book I realize this is an important part of the process (for me, at least) in the progression of creating a novel. Having a paper copy of the book to read and rework always moves the story forward and makes it better. I’ve come to look forward to those hard copy leaps.
Eric Poor 