Rally - First Draft

Schoolboy, or school bus driver?

Big problem. Last night the first draft of the book ‘The Scottish Rally Championship 1990-1999’ was completed. Phew! Job done.

Unfortunately not. The word count in the first book ‘1980-1989’ was around 86,000 words but subsequent requests from readers wanted longer reports and more stories.

Duly obliged, but gone too far. Far too far. The current word count stands at 144,000. Some serious editing will therefore have to ensue.

The trouble is, deciding what to leave out. If the 1980s Scottish rallying seasons planted the seeds of future success, then the 1990s bore fruit with three Scots becoming world champions and multiple national champions in this most exciting and thrilling of sports.

But those were the success stories. The sad fact is that so many more would-be stars never got the chance to compete on the world stage and those who did were unable to find a fulltime professional seat. Scotland was simply bursting with talent during that decade.

So the process of slashing and cutting will have to begin – and I haven‘t even started on the photograph selection process!!

As for the photo? Will that make the next book? Choosing what to leave out is going to be as difficult as reducing the word count.

On the other hand, it has been jokingly mentioned that there is scope for another book when the history series is complete and that final book will contain all the tales and pics that had to be left out. Maybe some serious consideration will need to be given to that idea too.

As for the photo – schoolboy or school bus driver? What do you think?