Great Revelations... Or Silly Notions? 14 drafts later... by Sheena Wilkinson

Earlier this week on ABBA, Keren David wrote a super post on outlining.  I read it with great interest as Keren and I often think alike on things – sometimes spookily so! It made me think about how I work.

When asked, I always say that I plan, write a terrible first draft and then revise and revise, sometimes quite drastically, and that is basically true.

Apart from when it isn’t.

my easiest writing experience

Star By Star, published in October 2017, was a commission, so I didn’t have to sell it on an outline. (Actually I have never sold ANYTHING on an outline, come to think of it, though I do write them for myself sometimes.) I love commissions – there’s the pressure there always is to get it right, but also the confidence of knowing the editor has asked for it and will publish it. The brief was wide and very much to my taste: We want a book about women voting in 1918, and the heroine has to be really strong. I was writing for my usual publishers Little Island, who know and trust me. Even so, it was a huge relief when they loved what I’d written. And that book came out more or less intact – there were changes between drafts, but nothing major.

The book I have just finished and delivered to my agent was completely different. It’s an adult historical novel, and I started it two years ago. I had to take nine months away from it to write Star By Star, which was no bad thing, as I abandoned the first draft having no idea how the book would end.

...and my hardest 

When I got back to it, I expected a Great Revelation to occur. It didn’t. It was very strange for me. I’m a planner, with a tendency towards pantsing when the characters get out of hand, which they sometimes do as I get to know them better, but I generally have an idea how it will end. Not in this case. The book eventually went through fourteen drafts – yes, fourteen, and every draft had a different ending. Great Revelations often revealed themselves, in the cold light of day, to be Silly Notions.

My agent didn’t see all fourteen drafts; I think she would have disowned me. She saw three, and in very case was able to give the advice that helped me get to a draft we were both happy with.

Why did it take fourteen drafts? I don’t know. It was a reasonably complex story I suppose, with three points of view. I love the new ending. I love the whole book, in fact, and though I got frustrated along the way, it was with myself, not with the characters or the story. There were no Great Revelations – the right ending was felt towards slowly and painfully, with many backward steps.

two editing notebooks 

And now it’s out there in the world, seeking its fortune, which is the really terrifying bit of the whole process. And I? I’m 30,00 words into a new adult novel. 100 years, two different timelines, stories connected in ways the readers, but not the characters know. What can possibly go wrong? At the moment I’m really confident about how it ends, but then last night, I was drifting off to sleep, I had a Great Revelation.

Or maybe a Silly Notion. I won’t know until I’ve written it. Hopefully not fourteen times.

 I didn't keep all 14 drafts: I would have had to  move house

One writer's blind spots.....by Miriam Halahmy

Where do you come unstuck? I seem to have a regular list of minor blind spots and two major ones. Perhaps writing this blog will remind me what I have to watch out for and even throw up a couple of things I'd never even considered.
Join me on the journey through my litany of blind spots.

MINOR BLIND SPOTS ( and these are just the ones I can remember)

Just ..... why does it appear so often? Is it glued to my typing fingers? It is almost never necessary and yet it punctuates dialogue, thought, narrative comment as though it is the most essential word in the English dictionary.
Strike 1 : just ( almost always)

Suddenly ... I know, I know - it's a real struggle to avoid this when you want to move things on. But this is a word at times I almost wish had never been invented.
Strike 2 : suddenly just about everywhere possible. Think of another way. ( groan)

Commas.....I litter the first draft with them. Most of those you don't need either.
Strike 3 : commas ( a lot of the time)

Contractions ....this is the opposite to the Strikes - for some strange reason my first draft almost never contains contractions. My typing fingers seem to automatically speak in formal language - she had never told anyone and she knew he had not either. I don't speak like that and neither does anyone I know!
Correction : pretty well all places where there should be a contraction.

Exclamation marks... They litter the dialogue as though everyone is shouting but I simply can't see it the first time round and often not even the third time round. I'm still removing exclamation marks the morning I hovering to press Send to lovely agent.
Strike 4  : you honestly don't need more than about 4 in a 60,000 word novel.

MAJOR BLIND SPOTS  ( can I bear to be this honest?)

1. Impatience : I can't relax until I've completed the first draft - well, that's probably normal. I love redrafting - I really do. You get that long lovely time to enrich your plot, layer the characters, leak in those juicy bits of research you've been saving. But then after I've done about several major and minor redrafts the impatience sets in and I want to be DONE! That's where I have to try and reign myself in, put the manu to one side, focus on something else and try not to read it again for at least I week - I know, I know - I bet the rest of you leave it at least a month and you're RIGHT - but I'm too impatient.

Note to self : C'mon! Learn patience! It's never too late you old boot.

2. Switching the initiative away from the main character.
Now this is the really serious bit of this post and probably why I've written it - this is my biggest note to self. I think it is a combination of a serious blind spot and impatience. I have had three separate readers in my life for three separate manus point it out - the second one was an editor who loved the book otherwise. It always happens around the climax of the book. I get distracted by an idea for the plot and for a second main character, it takes hold, plays out like a film in my head and BINGO - the initiative swaps hands like a deck of cards. I convince myself its a great piece of writing ( and probably the actual writing is ok) but the book is in danger of disappointing the reader and unravelling before my eyes.

Note to self : Be honest! And slow down!

But I am also one very lucky writer because over the years I have been able to develop close, supportive, trusting relationships with some very talented writers, including Sassies, Leslie Wilson and Savita Kalhan, and they are willing to read my manus and be very honest when I'm stuck in that blind spot. Usually I know there is a flaw, I'm worried about bits of the book - but I need the firm clear objective eye of my lovely readers to feedback before I press that Send button.

I have just finished my seventh novel. My readers have already pointed out Major Blind Spot Number 2. It's a relief to be honest - I couldn't see it but I could FEEL it. Now I have the time over the summer to fix it - I already know how- and it's going to be great fun. Just wish I'd had the good sense to sort it out myself.
*sigh* - maybe next time - especially now I've written it in a blog post!

www.miriamhalahmy.com