I’ve now completed the first run through of this fifth novel. In this one I am going a little deeper into
the lives of some of the girls who wrote the class letter. I’ve included one of
the twins, a girl that becomes an actor, another who becomes a farmer and the class
teacher.
Story line development
There are a few holes on the story. How do they come to involve
the class teacher? I’ve decided that Anika, the one who becomes an actor, feels
so worried about the situation with the Jews that she writes to her former
teacher. This also gives me the opportunity to develop the girls’ growing awareness
of the Jewish problem.
I’ve also decided that Fräulein Braun also needs more back
story. Why has she remained single? Why is she so wary of the Nazis when many people
welcomed them so much? So, I’m creating a
romantic back story which I’m slotting into a memory.
Plot line checking
I’m not sure that the whole of Hanna Braun’s story makes
sense. So, I have to reread that.
Copy edit
Even though this edit is largely to do with structure, there
are still some copy edit items I notice and in fact I’ve developed a whole list
of things I need to check such as consistency of certain spellings.
New story ideas
I thought there was going to be just one more book in this cycle
but I’m getting rather interested in Anika’s Tante Gabriela. She is part of the
German resistance. There’s a whole lot of research and writing to be done
there.
Word count worries
Even before I add the new bits in the novel is running at
102,000 words. I’ve identified about another 4,000 words that need to be
added. Oh dear. Still there is the possibility
that subsequent edits will reduce the number of words. One down, thirteen to go.
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