Looks like I answered your question backwards. Yes I wrote, and re-wrote Old City Hall for years. I believe in re-writing. Editing. Cutting. Cleaning the language. When the book finally came out, it was great to hear it as a book on tape. (Here's another hint: driving, avoid the radio and yakking away to your friend on your cell phone headset. Listen to books on tape, or better, speak to your fictional friends. I've worked out some of my best dialogue while driving, talking away to myself. Now, at least with everyone else on headsets, I don't look quite so crazy.) After a few chapters of listening to the book, I found myself hearing little flaws. Damn, I didn't need that adverb. Cut that adjective. Oh no, two paragraphs in a row start with "he." Before the trade paperback was released by Picador, I combed through the manuscript and made more than a hundred little changes.
There's no point in doing this, unless you do it as well as you possibly can.
So, I guess what you're saying is that you love it but it's a lot of hard work. Were you satisfied with the finished product this time around? And what did you like best about Old City Hall ?
Okay, here's a story for those of you who don't believe in editing. Or as I like to say, 'location, location, location' is to real estate what 'cut, cut, cut' is to writing.
The original manuscript for Old City Hall was 143,253 words, but who's counting? I cut forty thousand words out of the book. Sixteen chapters. Probably about two years' worth of work. And this was after I'd sold the novel in nine languages. It's called having a tough, good editor, and knowing how to listen. And it made it a much better book.
I remember there was a point when I got the galleys and I sat down and read the whole book from top to bottom, as if I'd never seen it before. And I thought, "Yes, this is the book I wanted."
So, am I satisfied? Very. There's one chapter I cut that I do regret taking out. In a perfect world, I'd go back and find a way to weave that in. Pretty small complaint.
Hey, I'm not painting any chapel ceilings, but it's a bit like what Michelangelo said about his sculpture of David: The figure was there, I just had to cut away the stone. Thanks to the darn internet, here's his actual quote: "I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free," and "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it's the task of the sculptor to discover it."
That's the goal, to find the sweet spot where your story lives. That point where it all fits.
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