Since many of you may have just
finished or be almost finished a brand-new first draft for NaNoWriMo , I
thought this might be a good time to post about second drafts. I spent this
November revising last year’s Nano novel so the process is fairly fresh in my
mind. (Of course, every author has their own process; this is merely what works
for me.)
I’m a firm believer that second
drafts should be all about the big changes: beefing up plot lines, fleshing out
character arcs, adding in action scenes to slow sections, etc. There’s no point
in spending hours creating beautiful prose when the whole scene may end up
scrapped. I call this rewriting and the beautiful prose bit polishing.
Polishing is something I do in the 3rd draft. Some writers call one
process rewriting and the other revision. Carina Press makes a similar
distinction between ‘developmental edits’ and ‘line edits’. Terminology may
differ, just know that for me second drafts are when I tackle macro large-scale
problems.
Step one: Reread the first draft,
stopping occasionally to make notes, but mostly just to read the entire story
in one go to see how it holds up. This step is especially important for me
because I let my first drafts ‘rest’ for months (or sometimes, shamefully,
years) before rewriting them. Actually, some manuscripts get winnowed out
entirely and rest forever. Not all ideas are created equal, and while I’m a
good enough writer to make a tolerable novel out of any of first draft, I also
need to invest my time and energy in only the best prospects.
Step two: Write out a chapter by
chapter summary of the novel. This gives
me an index of sorts for the entire novel, so I can see at a glance what order
scenes take place--which comes in very handy when I start moving scenes around.
Sometimes I color code certain plot threads so I can track them throughout the
story. First clue in chapter one, red herring in chapter two, second clue in
chapter three, etc.
Step three: Decide what changes
need to be made and brainstorm how to accomplish this. At a very simple level,
second drafts are a matter of what I liked and disliked when I reread the
novel: if I like a scene/character/plot thread, it stays; if I dislike it, it
gets changed or ripped out entirely. The first draft of Gate to Kandrith was written
in first person, started in what is now chapter three, was missing the entire
Esam subplot and had a different ending.
It was also considerably shorter, had no sex scenes and the
world-building sucked. Yeah, there’s a
reason why I don’t let anyone read my first drafts anymore.
Step four: Make the desired
changes. This is, of course, where the real work lies. Rewriting can be a long
road, and it helps to have a map.
What's your revision process? Do you make a distinction between rewriting and polishing? What's the biggest change you've ever made from draft to draft? Please comment, I love talking craft!
