By the time you read this…I should have stuck the landing on my WIP, and wrapped up the first draft.
As always, there’s a huge sigh of relief with typing THE END, even knowing that the process is far from over. I have a great agent, and although I know she isn’t sitting around holding her breath for this next manuscript, it’s important to me that I demonstrate an ability to work consistently and diligently. In truth, I have the luxury to take whatever time I need to get a book done (right now, they don’t pay bills and I have no “professional” publishing obligations), but still I set very tight deadlines for myself, and when I hit them, I’d like to think an eventual publisher or editor will see that I can deliver on time; i.e., I can write “on demand.”
Many writers take this opportunity after the first draft is done to set it in a drawer for a few weeks or months, to really let it “breathe”, so they can look at it with new eyes. I have something of a different approach. I do give myself a day or two off “to celebrate,” but since I already have a punch list of things I want to correct (see 2/3 Home… ), I dive write back into the manuscript at page 1, and start my second pass. At this point I’m still tinkering with the book’s architecture and it’s all fresh in my mind, so there’s no reason to delay. The characters and their voices and their motivations are still in my head and I have a very specific idea of what I want the book to look like, much better even than when I started. I’ll push hard through this second pass, tightening and cutting as I go, and then when I’m done with that, I’ll let my agent take a read if her schedule is clear. While she’s reviewing it, at this point I finally will set it aside for a bit –but not too long. I’ll start plotting out the next book (which, even right now, I’m ready and eager to get to), and then after three weeks I’ll get the completed book back out and really begin airbrushing the language – making sure there is a consistent tone throughout the whole work.
Once it’s really where I want it, I’ll hand it off again, and then start page 1 of the new book.
If this process sounds constant, it is. One book rolls into another, then rolls into another. Each book is a new chance, a new opportunity, to get better, to get it right, to get it sold – and I want as many chances as I can get!
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