Notes on Fix-Ups

It's exciting to be finally editing down the first phase of 'Triangles' into the fix-up version, that one-piece condensed version of greater coherence and sense. Yes, a massive number of typos and inconsistencies went unnoticed at the time, and it barely made any sense at all in retrospect, but it's going to a be a fun exercise. Editing is onerous once you get to inputting all the changes, but the 'scribbling on the page' phase is great, especially in weeks with lots of travelling. You sure can do a lot of scribbling in more than four hours of bus time. There's no better reason to travel the slow way than to spend all that time with pen, paper, and a brain that needs sharpening to reach the required level of nonsense.

Also in the editing bay is the first phase of 'Wordspace', which is proving a far more involved process. That story sprawled, and will hopefully lose a lot of padding as we go. The nicest part of the review is taking out all the neuter pronouns, having decided to just give all the character words genders after all. Yes, it will be less weird, but the end result will be much much easier to read, and won't leave me wincing every time the dreaded 'it' heaves into view. Even now the eyebrow twitches in torment at the thought. What madness it was to make every character an 'it'.

It seems as if the whole of summer was condensed into one week, these last eight days. There was a medieval fair at Kidwelly Castle, a picnic at Dryslwyn Castle, a trip to the Gwili Steam Railway and a day trip to Aberystwyth, as well as a new student seeking GCSE help and the ongoing primary student! This was truly a busy week. The medieval fair apparently recurs every year, and is getting larger, while the railway is good old-fashioned fun. There's something very relaxing about a steam train chugging away at twenty miles per hour for a short fifteen minutes to it's second station and back. There's a picnic area, a miniature train for the gullible children, and historical interest. What more could there be?

Meanwhile, in nostalgic television land, it's time for the detective show 'Hunter' from the 1980s. After viewing a few episodes, it seems this may be the series I've been trying to remember. It wasn't 'The A-Team', and it may yet be 'The Fall Guy', but 'Hunter' is proving pretty classy as it develops. More news soon as the cliches unravel and chemistry grows.

O.