WHEN IS A CHAPTER TOO LONG?

With it being the Easter break, I thought I'd have time aplenty to get rocketing through my next publication. I forgot real life tends to intervene. The washing machine broke down three weeks ago, and though I have a fabulous neighbour who is kindly letting us use theirs, traipsing next door in the dead of night, without make-up on, in a onesie, isn't my idea of fun.

Part one of Aqua, had a bit of a set back when my, also fabulous and highly recommended, proof editor Graham Pierrepoint, spotted several issues which included the characters lacking a bit of bite.  Though he did acknowledge the ADULT scences, took him by surprise. I suppose after WOTW he might have naturally expected fluffy bunny rabbits and kittens.

This meant a re-write on chapters 6 to 10 and another re-submission to Graham for part one. His comments also led me to review (for the seventh time) the rest of the book. Resulting in more re-writes, which I hope improve the readability (Did I just invent another word?)

While going through the layout yesterday I noticed something else I hadn't taken into account - chapter length. My original  prologue became chapter one some time ago, which I know is short at 6 pages, but as I've worked further through the story I've realised two of my chapters are vast. Generally they are between 18 and 25 pages, but these are 48 and 44! So, do I re-organise some of the chapters so they are all roughly the same length or, will my readers manage the extra long chapters? It's going to take some more thinking on my part, but I let you know the outcome in my next blog.

Meanwhile, in addition to Aqua, I'm also editing another book for the Inspirations Writing group, which I run. We are producing an Anthology, hopefully also coming out this year. The Red Anthology contains a number of short stories by local authors. Each story is different, from various genres, but they all have in common the word or colour RED. If it does well, you can expect other colours of the rainbow to appear in due course. Members have been sent the timeline and the final deadline for first drafts is 31st May so people reading this, still have time to join the group.

Another shameless plug - I'm at the Feel Good Festival at the Winter Gardens tomorrow supporting Soroptimist International. We really do need to get more members for the Thanet club (thanetsoroptimists.com)  so if you're interested come along tomorrow - admission to the event is free.