Well those drifter’s days are past me now
I’ve got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out.
(Against The Wind – Bob Seger)

I have two picture books coming out next year. One’s a humorous story (he says optimistically) about a frog who dares to dream. 🐸 The text of that one is done and dusted so my work is basically over. Now it’s in the hands of my editor and the illustrator. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the first images.

Now I’m in process of going through the text of the second picture book with my editor. This one is a humorous story (he says optimistically again) involving an elephant. 🐘 But not just any elephant. Although that’s about as much as I can say.

The text for the elephant story is around 450 words. You’d think compared to editing a novel it would be a piece of cake. Not so. There are many things that need to be addressed and important decisions that have to be made. Like …

• Should the story focus on just one elephant or a group of elephants?
• If one elephant, should the elephant’s gender be specified or should it be gender neutral?
• Where’s the best place for commas to go? Full stops? Ellipses? Exclamation marks!!!!!!!!
• Why did I stupidly use the word ‘flout’ when I really mean ‘flaunt’ and what do I do now that using ‘flaunt’ totally ruins the rhyme of an entire verse?
• What words/phrases should I change/adjust/rearrange/add/subtract to make it sound better?
• Are the verses in the BEST POSSIBLE ORDER? Hmmmmmmmmmmm?

That last question is the one I’ve been working on for the last few days and it’s driving me insane.

It turns out that because this particular story doesn’t follow a clear narrative line, there’s actually an INFINITE number of combinations and permutations in which the verses could be arranged.

And I should know because I’ve tried most of them!

I even printed out all the verses and cut them up so that I could physically swap them around. (That’s not my blood in the photo by the way – although it might as well be – that’s just my attempt to obscure the words). If a gust of wind had come in at this point, my life would have been over.

BUT now I think I’ve finally got it just about right. YAY! 😃

Although … what if I swap that verse there for this one here … and what if I move that one closer to the end … and then switch these ones for those ones … so that now, if you read it backwards … … … 😕

450 words takes a lot of editing.

I wonder what the market for haiku is like?

Cheers
Michael