Caught in a Draft

In a first draft, I let my imagination run just ahead of my typing speed—basically dictating the stories from brain to paper. The process usually involves a fair amount of outlining and commitment to daily word counts.

But in a month or two, I have a finished first draft.

Sooo satisfying.

Then comes the second draft.

Not my favorite.

This is the draft where I have to get serious.

All of the details I sprinkled willy-nilly through the first draft, have to be reviewed, confirmed, changed, supported, etc. And this is a mystery, so how about those clues?

And the pacing. Did I spend too much time in Act 1? Did I wrap up each story thread at the end? Did the character arcs work?

I’m right at this point with Lyrics & other Felonies. I have about 10 items left on my list to check through, rewrite, and reorder.

If there’s a better way to do this, let me know. I’m all in.

The only good second draft, is a finished second draft. When it’s successfully plotted and paced, I can roll back into ‘I like to write’ mode.

That’s where I get to have fun again, playing with word choice and cranking up tension in chapter endings.

Then there’s the first readers. These are the folks I trust to tell me what’s not working.

Finally, I take their comments and restart the review process. I’ll let you know when I get there.

For now…still have those last items…