HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN
TWELVE STEPS: Re-Drafting the Draft #Step ELEVEN
You might have to do this many, many
times.
I can’t tell you how many times but
Pride & Princesses probably had about a hundred drafts over a period of at
least two years… and it’s not perfect at all… and the spelling and punctuation,
because it had to please editors on two different continents, ended up being
both US and UK…
(*Readers please note, I have a US
draft ready to go again but I just have to get the chance to change over the
file at Amazon!)
Now, by this point (at least a month
or two after you started) you should have a working draft of your novel.
·
Put
it aside and get on with your life.
·
Go
back to it after you’ve had a complete ‘vacay’ away from both it and your
laptop.
·
Then
return to it after a break.
·
Have
a long hard look at it.
·
Read
it again.
·
Yep,
you are probably going to have to re-draft that draft.
I can’t stress enough that you have to
keep going over it with your eyes.
Until it’s as polished as you want it
to be.
First, you are drafting for the
overall story, characters etc. I’d save the ‘copy edit’ to the final drafts and
if at all possible you really need someone else to do that for you. Find
someone who understands more about spelling, punctuation and grammar than you
do. Make sure, if you are submitting in the US it follows US standards.
Remember, in the UK and Australia/NZ English (spelling and punctuation) have many
subtle differences to US English (spelling and punctuation).
Every morning (or whenever you review
your draft) you will literally find words and sentences you want to change.
The bad news?
I’m not sure when this process ends.
I once had an agent who I gave my
final draft of my first ‘grown up’ novel (not Pride & Princesses!) to and
it was slightly “unpunctuated.”
He looked at me like I was delusional.
He wondered if I’d forgotten how to
punctuate my work.
But what can I say?
I was very young.
“I wrote it in a hurry,” I said. “An
editor is just going to impose punctuation anyway,” I added, rather bizarrely
as I grabbed my new red coat and attempted to leave his office to go to lunch
with my new boyfriend.
Not impressed? Strangely, he wasn’t
either. Sometimes teenagers have more on their minds than what is at hand –
even so, I’d left myself open to criticism.
Don’t do it.
It’s not worth it.
Yes, the agent laughed (he had a good
sense of humour) …but he also told me to go home and punctuate the manuscript
properly.
I took his point and did it.
I guess this ‘drafting & refining’
process could end if and when you bring on board an agent, editor, copy editor
or publisher, but my feeling is, the process is just going to begin again. (Lucky
you – but hey, by now you might have a deal which really does make you lucky –
if it’s a good one!)
So, in summary: At first draft, you should
look at structure and tone. And for the subsequent drafts (up to about nine or
ten) you should keep going…
·
Is
your structure rock solid?
·
Is
your tone what it should be?
I had a problematic character in that
first novel (remember, I wrote it when I was eighteen) and a reader remarked
that this character ‘seemed angry’ and that it bothered him.
I wasn’t sure what was wrong with
having an ‘angry’ character, but in retrospect, it might be an idea to save the
‘angry’ character for a little further into your novel and maybe even your
career.
It depends, of course, on the style
and genre of your novel. If you are writing something for children, well, it
might not be necessary at all. Remember, I am just giving suggestions.
·
Sometimes
you get more with sugar than vinegar. You just do.
·
Sometimes
you have to play tough but if you’re young, it pays to be (slightly humble). I
respect that.
·
I
don’t like arrogance. I don’t care how high up in the publishing world a person
is, if I encounter it I avoid it.
·
There
is a place for presenting an over-confident persona but I don’t think that’s
necessarily the way to approach the business of publishing.
·
But
it’s your call.
·
It
certainly doesn’t pay to be a wilting wildflower either. People might treat you
disrespectfully or dismissively (though both are really the same thing).
·
Publishing
is a tricky business to navigate unless you have rock-solid contacts who introduce
you at the top end of town (ie. amongst people who actually make deals). If you
have to get beyond the gate keepers then you are going to need some serious
skills. That said, you might also choose to go it alone but I think you should
still educate yourself about the business of publishing before making an
informed decision.
·
You
are going to find that out the hard way, or the easy way, yourself (and by
then, my advice is going to be redundant, probably!)
·
Do
your research, be quietly confident (until you are ready to shout to the
rooftops) and work hard… there is no substitute for that (except maybe,
connections but they are only going to get you so far, maybe through a door no
more… of course, if you’ve got them… you might want to tap into them… right
about now.)
·
That
said, you learn very little of worth in this world without trying things for
yourself. I’m not suggesting you have to try things that are bad for you to
know they are bad for you.
·
But
you will never understand the business of trying to get published through
traditional channels (if that is what you want) without actually trying
yourself. From the ground up. Now, there’s another story…
