white space

I'm deep into another edit of John Mann - At Day's End. It's hard work of course. I've just found a loose thread which I will inevitably have to pull on, just to see what unravels so that I can stitch it back together. One of my favourite aspects of the editing process, which is not normally a fun pastime, is finally being able to turn to my Edit Boards.

As I write a story I get words and phrases, ideas and prompts, pop into my head. I don't always want to stop right then and back track to add them into what I've previously written so I record them onto post-it notes and stick them onto the Edit Boards until later. Well 'later' has now arrived and I'm transferring the saved words and phrases into the story. They won't all find a home there of course, some are just destined for the bin. This is an enjoyable process for me, I enjoy this part. This isn't a struggle. As I transfer the contents of a post-it into the story I'll remove it from the board and reveal another piece of white space. I like the fact that the blank spaces disappear from my story to be replaced instead by white spaces on the board.

Photo is the author's own