As Many Times as it Takes

Another school term starts and the house is quiet once again. I take stock of the list I've been compiling over the holidays of all the things I need to get done once everyone's back at school: follow-up from the Arvon course I attended at the beginning of summer, the short piece I've been working on for submission to a journal, the new manuscript I've been typing up, and of course, my long-term project, An Englishman in Rocket City.

Thanks to the help of Jane Bailey and Beatrice Colin at Arvon, I've reworked the opening of Englishman. I'm still sitting on the first line, however, the part of my 91,000 word MS that has seen the most redrafting, and which contains the idea to which I'm most wedded.

Where to start? Each item on my list feels more like a statement of general ambition with an outcome so wooly as to prompt me to shelve the whole thing in favour of something more immediately rewarding, such as doing the laundry, which at least contains real wool.

And that's what it all comes down to; choosing the task that while reap the biggest reward in the shortest amount of time. The submission to the journal wins hands down as the element of risk is low. If I send it off, I have something to show for my efforts at the end of the day, and if it's rejected, I don't feel like two years of effort have gone down the pan.

This is the danger with a novel - you only get one shot at impressing an agent, and if the writing's underdone, they won't bite. That fantastic opening sentence I cooked up yesterday needs time to cool down.

So, I work on the short piece, which is an account of riding my bicycle up a mountain in France. I did this three years ago, and have written about the experience several times for several different cycling magazines, originally writing my account in the style of a holiday guide, then as an amusing travel piece, and then the basis for short fiction. I've never submitted it, because ultimately it's never been quite right for the market. Now I've found a publication that covers a broad range of cycling-related topics, and I think my newly reworked psychological narrative is just right.

How many times do you redraft a story? As many times as it takes.