Week 25 - The View from the Crows' Nest

Having reached the end of my first draft, I was reminded of those old maps that had blank white areas around the edges to indicate lands that had yet to be charted.

Once the evening of euphoria caused by completing my first draft had metamorphosed into a dawning despair, I realised I had no idea how to write a second draft. In the cold light of day, I knew it wasn’t just a case of writing everything again, only better. That might be fine if you have endless days ahead with nothing to trouble you but the gentle caressing of finely turned phrases.

I don’t.

I have to carry on with my full time job, writing articles, interviewing people, taking photographs and so on.

I needed a plan.

So I decided to research and lo and behold, going against all known laws of the internet, I found what I was looking for almost straight away.

For anyone at a similar stage, I recommend this link http://www.essortment.com/all/writebetternov_rtsk.htm It’s a succinct guide to working through a second draft - I have printed it on one side of A4 and have annotated it with rough dates for each stage.

At the moment I am reading through my draft and marking passages that need to be extended or cut; characters who need to be introduced or indeed cut out (sorry Amy); and any gaping contradictions (what do you mean the murderer can’t be in two places at once?).

I am about half way through and the task has already borne fruit. I have a much clearer overview of the novel as a whole (it is six months since I wrote the first chapter); I am also happy to see that my writing improves around the time I started to write daily: proof, if it was needed, of the importance of habit in the writer’s life.

It also highlights the importance of being your own critic. Some of it is terrible and my red pen was used liberally; but most of it can be saved. The odd word may even remain unchanged.

Now is not the time to worry about typos and unpolished prose, but to get a handle on the overall structure of your scenes and make notes for when the real writing begins again.

Not that we should get sloppy. I am indebted to Andy Calow - he of Calow Classics http://www.calowclassics.net/ - for pointing out a typo in last week’s blog. As he is responsible for providing the soundtrack to my writing via his classical music shop, it was only fit that I took note.

So as I select some appropriate music from my iTunes library care of Mr Calow, it’s time to get back to my red pen and leave the keyboard alone for a couple of weeks as I work my way through a box file of A4.

Slowly but surely, I am navigating my way towards the second draft.