This year, I’ve spent most of my writing time editing the manuscript for Viral Agents. In this post today, I’ll walk you through my editing process, making note of the rationale behind each step of the approach. This is still a work in progress, of course, so I will refrain from spoiling anything in the story. Plus, since the novel isn’t actually published yet, I can’t say that this approach has been successful from the perspective of actually producing a work fit and capable for public consumption. But, the process is underway, and I stand by it for now. Let’s get going.
Novel
“Nocturnal Animals”: a Story-within-a-Story of Weakness and Betrayal
Nocturnal Animals is fashion designer Tom Ford’s second feature film as both writer and director, and once again he has delivered a nuanced film full of emotion, sadness, and intrigue. Starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film is a peculiar mixture of crime thriller and relationship melodrama, married through an inventive “story-within-a-story” structural device: the main character reads a manuscript of her ex-husband’s novel, and the film’s narrative ping-pongs between the real world and the world of the novel. As the procedural story unravels in the novel, we learn more about the relationship between these two characters in multiple flashbacks.