Trezka: Second Draft Complete
Firstly, I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your turkey, stuffing and pumpkin or apple pies. I know I did.
The mini holiday vacation proved quite beneficial as, amidst the copious laying of bricks (giggity) and the various shopping/spending time with family/much needed relaxation, I managed a few licks of writing and finally completed the second draft of my third novel, Trezka.
Now we dance.
That behind us, what does the second draft’s completion really mean? Well, just as when I finalized the same portions of Sanity’s Flaw and The Nobodies, now that the major points of the story are down, I’ll read a print copy of the book straight through, noting only comments and general impressions. I’ll do this with a blue pen. Through this, I gain a better feel for the narrative construction while both appreciating what works and identifying what doesn’t.
Once that step is complete, I will immediately, once again, read through the book again. However, during this run, I’ll use a red pen to mark adjustments, alterations and suggestions meant to strengthen the narrative. If you’ve seen the edits I’ve made to previous works, you’ll know I get rather… judgmental with my own writing, so I intent to make liberal use of my brand new red pen.
As could be surmised, the next step, following massive edits, will be to actually implement those changes into a third draft. This version can be drastically different than the second draft, so it will be interesting to see what results.
This is also the draft used to test the story on volunteer readers. Likely, this will not be until this summer, though perhaps I can be particularly effective and complete the draft by springtime. In the interim, what may be most exciting is that, with nothing in the foreseeable future but reading and editing, much of my creative energies are free to explore new territories. As such, I’ll be starting the outline for what will eventually be my as-of-yet untitled Fourth Book.
In fact, perhaps I’ll start that today….
The mini holiday vacation proved quite beneficial as, amidst the copious laying of bricks (giggity) and the various shopping/spending time with family/much needed relaxation, I managed a few licks of writing and finally completed the second draft of my third novel, Trezka.
Now we dance.
That behind us, what does the second draft’s completion really mean? Well, just as when I finalized the same portions of Sanity’s Flaw and The Nobodies, now that the major points of the story are down, I’ll read a print copy of the book straight through, noting only comments and general impressions. I’ll do this with a blue pen. Through this, I gain a better feel for the narrative construction while both appreciating what works and identifying what doesn’t.
Once that step is complete, I will immediately, once again, read through the book again. However, during this run, I’ll use a red pen to mark adjustments, alterations and suggestions meant to strengthen the narrative. If you’ve seen the edits I’ve made to previous works, you’ll know I get rather… judgmental with my own writing, so I intent to make liberal use of my brand new red pen.
As could be surmised, the next step, following massive edits, will be to actually implement those changes into a third draft. This version can be drastically different than the second draft, so it will be interesting to see what results.
This is also the draft used to test the story on volunteer readers. Likely, this will not be until this summer, though perhaps I can be particularly effective and complete the draft by springtime. In the interim, what may be most exciting is that, with nothing in the foreseeable future but reading and editing, much of my creative energies are free to explore new territories. As such, I’ll be starting the outline for what will eventually be my as-of-yet untitled Fourth Book.
In fact, perhaps I’ll start that today….
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