Progress Report on Save The Last Dance For Me

After months of a fairly radical rewrite of certain parts of Save The Last Dance For Me, I have finally printed off all 323 pages (91,000+ words) and sent them to the New Writers Scheme of the Romantic Novelists' Association. This is the third time I have had it critiqued and, as such, will be the last. I wait with baited breath the ensuing report.

One of the changes I made was to the title. It is now called A Suitable Young Man. Which of course my hero is definitely not! This is because he has a rival who is definitely A Suitable Young Man.  As the novel is set in the mid 1950s when mothers were definitely keen on their daughters finding and settling down with A Suitable Young Man. Back then, if you weren't courting seriously or engaged to be married, you were considered to be 'On The Shelf'. Sounds archaic now, but that was how it was then. 

I'm now looking forward to getting back to my follow-on novel, Bittersweet Fellowship. It will be good getting to know my characters again.

Update on Save The Last Dance For Me

Phew! Good news, I have finally finished the latest rewrite/edit on Save The Last Dance For Me. It has been quite an effort mainly because, as I reported last year, I needed to rewrite the time line and add quite a few new scenes. My next step is to rewrite the synopsis to fit in with the new timeline. Synopses are not the easiest things to write. One has to write in the present tense and somehow encapsulate the essence of the plot without giving too much away. 

Once I have done that, I will be sending it off (for the last time) to the New Writers' Scheme of the Romantic Novelists' Association in order for this latest version to be assessed by one of their readers. It will be an interesting wait to see if this latest rewrite works. Watch this space ...

Other news on the RNA front is that I have once again booked for the Conference to take place in July at the University of Sheffield. I'm looking forward to that, especially as it's practically on my doorstep this year, Sheffield only being about 15 miles away from where I live.

Update on novel rewrite

Way back in June, I posted about receiving a critique of my novel Save The Last Dance For Me from the Romantic Novelists Association under their New Writers Scheme. I mentioned that on the whole the critique was most encouraging but that the reader had suggested some fairly major modifications which would have thrown my carefully managed timeline. At that time, I didn't feel I could face up to yet another rewrite.

Now, though, after an interval of several months during which time, for various reasons, I didn't get much writing done at all, I've taken another look at the critique. I've listed all the modifications on a separate piece of paper and suddenly could see the sense in it. The upshot of this has been that I have started the rewrite and have so far written three new chapters and amended several others to fit in with the revised timeline. And it works! 

Any novice writer will tell you, and possibly some published writers, that at times one wonders if it is worthwhile carrying on and whether you really have got what it takes to succeed. I'm so thrilled that I decided to take another look at the critique and now feel that I have got my writing voice back in shape.

A Eureka! moment

I had one of these the other day while watching a TV programme. It was a dramatised version of how Tony Warren, the Manchester lad who first thought up the idea of 'Coronation Street' overcame enormous obstacles to get his series shown on Granada TV. The Granada bosses shook their heads, 'No one,' they said, 'would want to watch a programme about Northern working class people. There's that accent, for a start.' Tony and his supporters (and there were a few) proved them wrong by showing the pilot show to the ordinary employees of Granada who, for the most part, enjoyed it. 

I have been told, too, that no-one wants to read about ordinary people's lives, which is mostly what my novel Save The Last Dance For Me is about. I do believe, like Tony Warren did, that they do, I think because they can relate to the story. Is this why 'Coronation Street' has been so successful for the past 52 years?

Incidentally, I learned that the series had originally been called 'Florizel Street'. That had to be changed when the Granada tea lady said that Florizel sounded like a disinfectant!

So, I've decided that I'm going to concentrate on small independent publishers, preferably in Lancashire, where my novel is set.

Belated Blog

Many apologies for not blogging for such a long time. I had been busy editing my latest rewrite (seven so far plus numerous edits) of Save The Last Dance For Me in preparation for resubmitting to the New Writers' Scheme of the Romantic Novelists' Association. On 18th May, with huge sighs of relief, I sent off the finished manuscript and am now awaiting a reader's critique. I fully intended taking a break of a few days before tackling anything else but a short holiday in the Cotswolds and catching up with garden tasks and, most recently, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, means that I have not yet done so. But, back to normal now, and I am resolved to start again tomorrow!


A few weeks ago, in the May issue of Writing Magazine, I read an article by Adrian Magson on what it takes to be a writer. One of the things he said really struck a chord with me and, I guess, with many of my fellow writers. I quote: "A hunger to write. Not to be confused with an obsession for compiling lists, but that innate passion to be a writer, in whatever form. This usually manifests itself early in life, leading to a relentless haunting of bookshops and libraries, or a deep attraction to writing materials. And writing, of course. Goes without saying." Sums me up in a paragraph! I can't resist bookshops (especially second-hand ones), libraries (all those books promising a good read) and stationery shops (to buy notebooks, of course!).

Update on progress on two counts

I'm half way through yet another rewrite of Save The Last Dance For Me. A Facebook friend and follower of this blog pointed me in the direction of some excellent notes on self-editing and it has been a great help. I'm finding I keep referring to them to remind myself what I'm striving for. I've been working on a pivotal chapter today and although it's taken me a few hours to do, I feel reasonably happy with it.

I had good news in my search for any Buttolph cousins in that I was contacted by someone who is descended from the brother of my great-grandmother, Anna Maria Buttolph. She has traced their ancestry back as far as 1640! That's great going, only possible because the family stayed in more or less the same area for the whole of that time.