Saturday 22 March 2014

Almost Ready to Start the 2nd Draft...

I just have to finish minor editing ready to submit 2 short stories, then I can begin reading the 1st draft (D1)

It's been a month since I finished, and I probably could have left it to settle for a few more weeks, but printing out those last 2 chapters (that had been waiting for the new printer to be bought and installed) started my brain whirring.

I really shouldn't have started reading them!

So this coming week I'll start the reading- and making notes as I go.

I asked friends for any helpful tips, and I'm certainly going to be using the red and green pen idea they suggested. Red for typos and grammatical errors, green for changes, where inserts are needed. I may also use a blue pen for anything that falls outside of these areas.

The second half of the D1 was much more rounded than the first half - I realised this as I was writing. I suppose by then I'd learnt a lot more about my characters and the plot line had become more fixed; also the changes I made in event order fitted better than how I'd originally imagined them, so the writing flowed better.

By the last few chapters my hero's home was staffed by a small group of servants who weren't there before, and a couple had distinct parts to play. Obviously they will have to appear as appropriate in earlier chapters, but I do know exactly where one will fill a suitable role.

I know that this 2nd draft is going to be as much of a learning process as the first was.

I've not only been discovering how my mind puts a longer story together, but also how to make the best of the time I have to write...

If you have any insights on the 2nd draft process, I'd enjoy hearing them.




16 comments:

Helen Baggott said...

Fascinating to read about how this is progressing.

Teresa Ashby said...

What a good idea about the different coloured pens. You can use post it notes as well if you run out of space on the page. It does sound very exciting to be working on your 2nd draft x

liz young said...

I can relate to this, Carol, especially the need to insert clues to later appearances of characters.

Patsy said...

The 2nd draft is a good time to check any facts you've used. If something is wrong you might have to change a section and that'll get harder the more work you've done on it.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Love the idea of coloured pens while redrafting! A useful thing to check at some stage is repetitions or overuse of certain words (we all have them) like very, just, suddenly etc. You can use the find and replace option for that. Good luck!

Carolb said...

I'm learning a lot myself, Helen. :)

Carolb said...

I have a good supply of post it notes too, Teresa, thanks for the reminder. :) Though I didn't need them for chapter 1 today.

Carolb said...

Thanks. Having had a month away from the manuscript I can see these minor characters better, Lizy.

Carolb said...

I have a few research queries marked on my first draft that I still have to resolve, Patsy. I agree that now is the best time to sort them. :)

Carolb said...

Was using the three coloured pens today with chapter one, and it worked very well, Rosemary.

I'm hoping I'll start to notice overused words as I go along, so the find and replace option will be helpful. Thanks for the helpful suggestion. :)

Steven Chapman said...

Carol, you could use something like this:

http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp

Shows the word frequency of a chunk of text. It may be helpful for spotting overused words. There are plenty of word frequency checkers out there, this is just a random one :)

Carolb said...

Thanks, Steven. That is useful to know.

I'd never realised there were so many options available.

Maxi said...

Great to hear how this is getting on. I think the use of coloured pens is a great idea. I'm halfway through my 2nd edit but may start incorporating that method...if I can find any pens rummaging around! Good luck with the drafts.

Carolb said...

Thanks, Maxi.
I think the different colour pen use just fits how the editing side of my brain works.

If you try it, hope it helps.

Angela Barton said...

Hi Carol

I know what you mean about the second half of novels feeling more rounded, and I agree that it's probably because we know our characters in more depth. In a month or two I'll be editing my latest novel and will definitely be using the red and green pen idea you've mentioned. thanks for the helpful post.

Ange

Carolb said...

Thanks for visiting Ange.

I've only done a couple of chapters so far with the coloured pens and I've been amazed at how helpful it's been.

Hope you find it works for you too. :)