“I see an unresolved conflict in this story, Demelza.” “Oh Ross, a good editor will work wonders.”
This week I’ve been busy with publisher’s edits for Moonstone Conspiracy, the sequel to Moonstone Obsession.
The first set of edits an author will see is known as structural edits. A good editor will read through the story to see whether there are bits that don’t make sense, plot threads which could be strengthened and tightened and in the case of romance, making recommendations that will help your readers fall in love with the heroine and heroine all the more.
A holding back of detail here and a exposition of feeling there, gives depth to a story.
This is where the editor’s steadying hand and recommendations become invaluable. They’re coming to the story ‘cold’, they’ve not lived with it as long as the author has, but their perspective and experience is the difference between a story which is okay and one which is a whole lot better.
So a big thank you to Kyle, my editor at Etopia Press for pushing me a bit further.
That level of detail and restraint at the appropriate time is one of the reasons while I’m enjoying the new adaptation of Poldark so much.
The current screen adaptation is a wonderful tribute to Winston Graham’s creation and I can’t disagree with screen writer Debbie Horsfield who describes our hero as:
“I think of him as being part Rochester, part Heathcliff, part Robin Hood, part Darcy, part Rhett Butler. He’s got elements of all of those great literary and movie-hero rebels.”
Indeed!
One of the things which makes this hero so appealing is his passion and chivalry, which this current captures well and which was apparently missed in the 1975 series.
And without giving away any spoilers, the current series shows the developing relationship between Ross and Demelza in a way which is much more in keeping with what Graham himself wanted for the characters.
Andrew Graham, a political economist who once worked for Harold Wilson, is Winston Graham’s son. He tells me how his father, who died aged 95 a dozen years ago, fell out badly with the BBC exactly over the issue of Poldark’s character.
For Graham, indeed, the first series was “a disaster zone”, although relations were repaired for the second when the author became more involved in the production. (Mammoth is required to “consult meaningfully” with Andrew who is the literary executor.)
The problem, it seems, was that the BBC, as it were, made Demelza pregnant and that made it look as if Ross had married her out of honour and conformism.
“In the book he sleeps with Demelza and then the next thing they’re getting married. I think my father thought that this was all part of Ross not caring what people thought about him. In the books people were chattering behind their hands: ‘Oh, isn’t Ross Poldark dreadful? Pulling this young thing away from her father and then exploiting her and sleeping with her?’ Ross just thought, ‘I know, I’ll show them: I’ll marry her.’ ”
Same story, same source, two different results.
And it comes down to a good editor and a writer willing to listen.