The Danger of Being There

Well, I've had my first therapy session with my editor. One of the things she highlighted, which is probably worst in Activation because it is a problem that I only became aware of later, was that there were places where characters did things that made no sense. Beyond the normal nonsensical behaviour of my characters, that is.

And the reason for it was that the scene was so vivid in my mind, I could see every detail, that of course that action was the logical thing to do. But I had failed to get that down on the page so that the reader could make the same logical judgement.

It is a danger in that I am reading with privileged knowledge. I don't pick these things up on a read through because my reading is still informed by the mental images of the events. That takes a second pair of eyes - lacking the author's insight - to spot. And there have been some very acute observations.

It really does make the argument for having that second pair of eyes. Obviously a real editor is ideal but any sympathetic reader is better than nothing. By sympathetic I don't mean that they will go soft on you, but that they are in tune with what you're writing. Showing an SF story to someone who isn't into SF is going to be less productive than showing it to someone who is, because the first person will either pick up things that are accepted SF concepts and want an explanation (which incidentally is why the first series has a glossary. My only reader at the time - this was before I published anything - isn't fond of acronyms.) or they will assume that things must make sense 'if you're into that sort of thing' and not flag up genuine inconsistencies.

Suffice it to say that although this won't be a short or easy process, it will result in a better book. And the story will be as comprehensible as it can be.