Draft 3 Helga’s Story and editing Face to Face with the Führer

 

 I have now completed another draft of Helga’s Story. I’ve added in two more chapters which deal with a sub-plot that had been left hanging.

I found another little plot detail that needed resolving but that was just a matter of adding in another paragraph in a late chapter.

There were one or two other loose ends that I had to tighten with just a sentence here and there.

I noticed also some optional spelling anomalies and have done Find and Replace to address those.

Even at this stage I’ve noticed some overuse of certain words and phrases and again have used the Find function to identify them all and change some of them.

In this book I’ve not got dates in chapters though I am just about to do the time edit in which I will temporarily put a time identifier into chapter headings. I want to establish that time works, so I’ll also be figuring out how much time has passed in each chapter. On the whole, I don’t think the reader needs these time markers so much in this one; much of the present day narrative happens in a short space of time and then we have Helga’s reflections of the past.

I’d also taken out the time markers for my chapter headings in Face to Face with the Führer. However, the editor has suggested I should have them in.

In The House on Schellberg Street, Clara’s Story and Girl in a Smart Uniform I have very precise time markers, including the day of the month. For Face to Face with the Führer I’m just putting a place and a year for whenever time jumps forwards.

The editor has also pointed out that I have two deaths in two subsequent chapters.  I’ve decided to reorder the story a little so that there is some normal life between the two deaths.

She has also suggested an extra plot point that I am going to include. What might have happened if the protagonist had acted differently when she found herself standing opposite Hitler. And she’s given me an idea for a whole new series of books.