Okay, so in September of this year I will have another round of Basics of Writing posts, and one of those will cover revision, but today's topic is a bit different from revision. Also, today's topic is completely relevant to my prep for Camp NaNoWriMo and my project, Souls Unknowing.
I know of a number of writers who rewrite their drafts three to ten times before they are satisfied with the story. Rewriting was never that vital to my writing process. It used to be that I would write a draft, set the whole manuscript aside for at least a couple weeks and at most a few months, and then read through and scribble all over in the margins. I would make little notes about adding scenes or more details or perhaps a longer conversation, but I typically did not scrap a scene and start over from scratch.
But lately it seems like a lot of my projects are becoming unique and veering away from my typical writing process. Souls Unknowing is no exception to this. I have said it before and I will say it again: when I wrote the first draft of SU I was in high school and I thought that third person present tense was a good idea.
Now, for some authors, 3rd person present tense works as a POV, but looking back at that old draft now, I cringe while trying to read it. I am not one of those people. I can do 1st person present tense, but not 3rd. Looking at that old draft, I also cringe at how simplistic it is in a lot of ways. Sure, I ended up with a bit over 50,000 words, but about 75-80% of the draft is dialogue. I know I need to add a lot more description into this story.
So...for the first time, a complete rewrite seems to be in order.
Thankfully, SU was written about three computers ago and was saved on floppy discs and such, which means I have no digital copy available to me so my old way of revision wouldn't work even if I wanted to pursue that option.
I do have a complete printed out copy of the original draft, so I have something I can refer to while writing, but honestly, unless it is absolutely necessary, I think I'm just going to go with the flow and write...see where the adventure takes me this time.
I know my characters and I know the major plot points I need to hit this time around. But other than that, I think the best path moving forward is to try and treat this like a first draft again. I have grown so much as a person and a writer, and I have a much better understanding of the writing process now. It would be a shame to miss out on some great writing possibilities just because I'm trying to stick completely to the ideal of that decade old draft.
So, I may still call this a rewrite, and I may still reference that draft from high school, but I think when I do my writing updates in July that I'm just going to talk about my current writing and the progress I'm making for the duration of Camp NaNoWriMo.
That being said, I guess the question to address is...how do you handle writing a full draft of a book? The answer sounds so simple but is so extraordinarily difficult...you just write. Write down one word followed by another followed by another until you reach the end. Then you go through that draft and read it, with a critical eye as if it was written by somebody else, and make commentary and notes for how to improve the draft. Then you follow those notes and revise the draft. You repeat this as many times as are necessary to make it feel like the best book it can be. And then maybe you do it one more time just to be sure.
Writing and publishing is a long and tiring process, but that feeling of accomplishment at the end is totally worth it.
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