When in doubt, choose change
In which I break a grammar rule and have a month of highlight upon highlight
Breaking the rule(s)
Do you remember all those grammar rules from school? Never start a sentence with "and" or "but", don't split your infinitives (except if you're Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry*), and never end a sentence with a preposition.
Ah, yes, that last one... Made famous by the quote that Winston Churchill might or might not (and most probably did not) say:
"This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will never put."
He (or whoever did say it) has a point. There are some times when you just need to end a sentence with a preposition. One is when you don't want to sound like a gentleman from the 18th century.
After all, who wants to have to go around saying:
"To whom should I give the money?"
Here, it is more than fine to say:
"Who should I give the money to?"
Over time, "whom" has fallen out of usage, and so where you'd need to use it to avoid ending with a preposition, then go ahead and ignore the rule. Keep your sentence neat and simple.
But when should you follow the rule? (Oops, I just broke another grammar rule there.)
You should definitely stick to it in formal, written communication, and I would also suggest it when you're writing to someone from an older generation.
Other than that, play it by ear. Read the sentence back to yourself out loud. If you have to do verbal gymnastics to move that preposition from the end of the sentence, then you should probably just leave it there. Just make sure that the preposition is actually needed:
"Where are you going
to?"
Now you can set off to brazenly break a grammar rule. (Damn, I did it again...)
* "To boldly go where no one has gone before..." and all that.
What I've been up to recently
August has been a busy month. The first week I was straight out of holiday mode and thrown right into editing a longer report. No easing myself back in; that was for sure.
I then managed to get a pretty sizeable chunk done on the novel between editing tasks for other clients.
But the two highlights of the month (oh yes, not one, but two) were the Stockholm Writers Festival and being commissioned to update the Sweden chapter of the new Scandinavia guidebook from Fodor's.
This latter makes me happy for two reasons, the first being that it's a great project to have secured. The other is that it means travel publishers are returning to guidebook production again after the pandemic. And that can only be good news for the travel industry.
As this Fodor's project runs from mid-August until the start of November, I will be occupied with that for the next couple of months.
As I mentioned, the other highlight for me in August was the Stockholm Writers Festival, which ran over a weekend in the middle of the month. I met so many brilliant, creative, talented writers, editors, agents, and more. The highlight of the highlight for me was stepping far out of my comfort zone by standing up on stage and giving a one-minute pitch of my novel to The Book Doctors at the Pitchapalooza event that closed the festival. Terrifying, exhilarating, and instructive in equal measure.
The evening before, at dinner with some new writer friends from the festival, I came face-to-face with the realisation that the first third of the book needs cutting. Scene after scene is nothing more than world-building. It needs hacking at, slicing, revising, and for the crux of the story to come much sooner.
I had been troubled by this thought for a few weeks before, but I had been pushing it away. However, as soon as I started to talk to the others about my storyline, I could see what I needed to do.
So, I went home and mourned the loss of a few tens of thousands of words that I would have to cut, and then I sat down and wrote my one-minute pitch as if I had already revised the first act of the story.
And you know what? By the time I stood there on that stage and did my pitch, I knew it was the right move to be making.
I've returned to the Excel spreadsheet, the colour coding, and the index cards, and I'm now well on my way to reshaping the plot in the first act.
Now I just need to do the rewriting, right? Ha, the easy part ;)
What I've been reading recently
I read some corkers this month (and some not-so-great reads too).
The New Mrs Clifton - Elizabeth Buchan: The build-up in this novel offers a masterclass in creating tension and also in that clever trick of making the reader feel clever enough to see the denouement coming—only for the rug to be snatched out from underneath them on the very last pages. I cannot say more than this without giving away too much of the story, but the last few pages of this book have stayed with me in the weeks since I finished it.
Sisters in Arms - Kaia Alderson: Historical fiction? Check. Second World War? Check. Overlooked female characters? Check. This one scored high on appeal at first glance. In the end, though, I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I found from time to time that I couldn't keep the characters straight and got confused between them, and I found the ending a little rushed.
Signal Moon - Kate Quinn: This short story had me gripped. I devoured it. I think I will return to it in a couple of months for a second listen—it was that good.
Anatomy - Dana Schwartz: Another one I wanted to love, but I just couldn't get to grips with this gothic historical novel set in Edinburgh in 1817. I guessed the big reveal very early on. I imagine it's because it was written for a younger audience (rather than me being incredibly clever), but it just felt like a slog because I could see where it was heading. Stunning cover, though.
Loitering with Intent - Muriel Spark: I don't think there's a Muriel Spark book I don't like. This one hit the spot with its on-point characterisations and spiky narrator. It's a strange tale (I went into it knowing nothing about the story) but one that Muriel Spark tells with her usual wit and bite. Lovely.
Until the next time,
