184 pages of rough draft manuscript, an inch-thick double-sided stack of 93 sheets of paper, sits binder-clipped and waiting on my desk. The novel itself is incomplete, with heaps of content still needing to be written, and heaps more editing to do on top of all the content both written and to-be-written.
The manuscript, or MS, is at least printed though — So what now?
- Flip through it, then put the manuscript aside for a couple of days.
- Make some general notes, things I know off the top of my head that I want to do. It could be drafting a specific scene, setting up different scenes in a particular order, whatever.
- Hide all pens and pencils. This is essential for the next part…
- Read it. And that's all. Just read it. Don't edit it, don't scribble on it, nothing. Just read it. Read it like a regular reader, who just wants to read a book.
- Once you've read it through, put the manuscript aside for a couple of days. Let the words, the action, the structure, the characters and their interactions, all sink in for a bit. Give your subconscious time to work on identifying what works and what doesn't, what needs changing, what needs leaving alone, what needs deleting, what needs drafting.
- Take all pens and pencils out of hiding (or, if you're as too-good at hiding things as I can sometimes be, give up the search and buy new pens and pencils).
- Read the novel again, but this time, as both reader and editor. Mark up the pages. Cut mercilessly. Note what needs to be moved where, and where new scenes and action are needed.
Once all that's done, it's time to put the revisions to work on creating the new full draft of the novel. And then, it'll be time to do this all over again, but the novel will be that much closer to the final draft.
