Acknowledgement

I always felt the long list of acknowledgements for assistance in the writing of a novel, increasingly  prevalent it seems, was just a tiny bit pathetic - after all, if they were proper writers surely they could  do it all themselves?

Humbled, I now know different.   A complete stranger, met only through the good offices of the 'whole MS read-swapping' group at WriteWords, not only read the whole of my second draft of 'Not wanted on Voyage', she also made sixty-one comments.   Some were a treat, noting phrases she particularly liked (and henceforth I will always include them in any critique I do), some were small but vital (like pointing out I'd written 'Madigan' when I'd meant 'Mirabel') and several were "too much show, not enough tell".

Having dealt with the minor points I am now tackling these larger ones and already I can see that I am making vast improvements.  Yes - I am making them, it is still my book, but I might not have done so had it not been for her pointing them out, and so I will gladly include her name among other acknowledgements.

And I am very slightly less trepidatious knowing this will be the novel I shall, in September, be handing first to a 'book-doctor' and then pitching to an agent at the York Festival of Writing.

Another book

Yesterday I began reading David Lodge's 'Souls and Bodies' - an account of the lives and the impact of Catholicism on a group of people who were undergraduates in the mid 1950s.   This was recommended by Michael Brown in response to my request for help on 6S and is proving a fascinating - and extremely useful - read, reminding me of so much about life in Britain at that time, as well as enabling me to get a better idea of how Sean & Bridie might tackle the question of a Catholic marriage.

Re-reading Toby Hecht's blog 'Collaboration' on editorial interventions, and from thence considering acknowledgements, it crossed my mind that among those I list in my eventual novel (ha ha!) perhaps MDJB should be one - but really that seems not to be the point at all.   Are people whose list of those they feel obliged to thank for help runs to half a page or more (sometimes a LOT more) confusing perhaps the (maybe sycophantic for a purpose) acknowledgements necessary for a dissertation, where exam success rests upon a good mark, with the more grown up and individual production of a novel, or are they wishing to share the blame should it be a failure?