Writing Report March 26, 2021

Mar 26

Mar 26 Writing Report March 26, 2021

The first draft of my big (formerly) work in progress clocks in at 104,599.

I tend to write long and shaggy, repeating information, spelling things out in great detail, etc., etc., and of course, etc.

Final draft target length will be in the 80K range, but it’s not simply a matter of whacking stuff out.

I’ve come up with several scenes and bits of business I want to add. Draft two will incorporate them and try to make an appreciable dent in the word count, but the real paring down will be in the polish.

I differentiate between drafts and polishes this way:

The first draft gets the story laid out so I can see all the component parts.
The second draft works on those parts, rearranging them / trimming them / eliminating some.
The polish takes the final form and sands down the rough edges, slaps a smooth finish on it, and sends it out into the cold, cruel world.

For me, there shouldn’t be a third draft of the story.

You need your basics laid out in the first draft, the final structure in the second.

If you’re still facing structural problems in the third draft…well, to paraphrase Billy Wilder, the problem was in the first draft.

(This is not to say I haven’t written stories that have run into third drafts, just not third complete drafts. I can usually tell long before I finish draft one that it isn’t working and will abandon that approach and restart the effort from a different direction; call that one draft one-B. I have a story where it took me over two decades and two abortive false starts before I figured out the correct angle of approach and eventually I will write it now that I’ve figured out what the problem is.)

I forget which writer said it (Voltaire? Honore de Balzac? I seem to remember it being a French author), but there’s a quote about a writer needing to tell the story three times:

First to tell it to yourself.
Then to discover what the story is really about.
Finally to figure out how to tell it to the reader.

I’m taking about a six week break from my first draft to work on some other projects, then will dive into re-reading / re-editing / re-writing what I need to for the second draft.

God willin’ an’ th’ crick don’t rise,
I hope to have it ready
by the end of summer.