You may do what you like, Doctor...

'You may do what you like, Doctor.'

 

 

 

Towards the end of A Study in Scarlet, Holmes explains his reasoning which allowed him to identify and corral Jefferson Hope. It is a great moment because it is, as far as I can tell, the first time Watson thinks about writing an account of Sherlock Holmes for publication:

'It is wonderful!' I cried.  'Your merits should be publicly recognized. You should publish an account of the case. If you won't, I will for you.' 'You may do what you like, Doctor,' he answered.

 Of course, Holmes didn't exactly mean what he said; we know he complained about Watson's writings on more than one occasion, often slowing the publication of a particular adventure, or preventing the publication entirely with his "own aversion to publicity." I've thought a great deal recently about Holmes giving Watson carte blanche as I've worked on first draft edits for the submissions to the new anthology, Sherlock Holmes: Into the Fire. 

I've spent an inordinate amount of time thinking, reading, and researching questions such as: Did Holmes mean he was undercover all of 1912 when he told Watson  in August 1914 he had been undercover for two years as Altamont ("It has cost me two years, Watson, but they have not been devoid of excitement.") 

A specific plot point in one of the tales for Fire depends on historical events in 1912. Can Holmes be available to do something for two to three days in early 1912? I laugh a little when I type this because I know for sure Arthur Conan Doyle wouldn't care about the question. Note this paragraph from his How I Write My Books article in The Strand Magazine (December 1924):

In short stories it has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter If I can hold my readers? I claim that I may make my own conditions, and I do so. I have taken liberties in some of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I have been told, for example, that in "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," half the characters would have been in jail and the other half warned off the Turf for ever. That does not trouble me in the least when the story is admittedly a fantasy.

His declaration is followed immediately with "It is otherwise where history is brought in. Even in a short story one should be accurate there." I decided to agree with him. The author will keep the historical events of 1912 in place in her story, and we will accept the fantasy of Holmes being available in early 1912 for three days. 

Playing the Sherlockian "game" gets complicated at times. Of course, we know (all too well) half the fun of Sherlockiana is found in such complications.  These sorts of questions are, for me, the fun part of serving as editor for a new collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures.

The copy editing is another thing entirely, and, honestly, rarely as much fun. Fortunately for me, the authors contributing to the project are doing good work. The not-as-fun part is not as drawn out as it could be otherwise. Grammar, spelling and punctuation must be seen to as best we can. I have a jingle I sometimes repeat; it is also on a sticky note on my computer:

Anyway, it was so very like that there and it was just because of that passive verb especially what it had been.

The jingle is a reminder of a few writing evils I search for when reading the texts. Doyle doesn't mention copy editing in his article about how he writes. No great surprise there. Watson's wife does call her husband "James" rather than John.

I do wish we could match Doyle for speed in the creation of the book:

As I grow older I lose some power of sustained effort, but I remember that I once did ten thousand words of "The Refugees" in twenty-four hours. It was the part where the Grand Monarch was between his two mistresses, and contains as sustained an effort as I have ever made. Twice I have written forty-thousand-word pamphlets in a week, but in each case I was sustained by a burning indignation, which is the best of all driving power.

The world today is full of burning indignation, especially on social media. I have a feeling if Doyle were writing now, the energy of his fire might be expended in shorter posts rather than 40,000 word pamphlets. I think we will continue to plod along, trying to do good work, leaving the burning indignation to others.

Well, except when it comes to the over use of the word that in a text. I sometimes feel a little burn then. Doyle uses that at least five times in the two inset paragraphs I've quoted here. Two of them are unnecessary and one is part of sentence which should be rewritten.  In the least, I would ask him to tidy up the "...it has always seemed to me that so long as you produce...". 

I imagine he would tell me to bugger off.