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Rewriting and writng are completely different beasts, but equally as important if you want your writing to matter. It's virtually unheard of for writers to start a novel, write for a few weeks or months and then have a completed manuscript that doesn't require any further work. Victor Nabokov stated that; "Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten -- often several times -- every word I have ever published." Likewise, Ernest Hemmingway reportedly wrote the end of Farewell To Arms a total of 39 times before he was satisfied with it. If these guys have to rewrite so extensively then it takes a pretty delusional or egotistical mind to think their work won't warrant the same kind of effort.

You've worked hard to finish your first draft, don't make it in vain by beleiving the work stops there. Enough has been written about the rejection and despair of authors seeking publication. The simple fact is that the person who should recognise flaws in a peice of work before anyone else is the person who wrote it. The better you get at this the less rejection you'll face. There's plenty of people out there with industry connections and deep pockets who can bypass the need to perfect their work before it's accepted. For those of you like me who don't have those luxuries, well, we have to rely on something else...fantastic work that demands attention.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

DON'T WRITE THE SECOND DRAFT BEFORE YOU'VE WRITTEN THE FIRST

You're not going to write a perfect manuscript the first time around, so don't try to. When you're writing the first draft the goal is simply that, to write it, from start to finish. Once you have that pile of pages you can worry about shaping it and crafting it into the finished article in the second and subsequent drafts.

You shouldn't write a first page based on what you think an agent wants, or employ plot devices simply because you've heard someone say a publisher is interested in them. There's no magic formula for successful fiction. If there was then agents, editers and publishers wouldn't bother agenting, editing or publishing, they'd all be writing bestsellers! Keep abreast of developments in the market and what is selling vs what gets nowhere but remember that you're not trying to be an also-ran, you want your book to succeed on merit so make it as good as it can be, not as good as the constraints you've placed upon yourself will allow it to get.  Write what makes sense to you and your story and then you can worry about what other people will think after that.

Your first goal should be to write something that makes sense all the way through. Something that people can read, even if they're not engrossed, without getting lost. Then you've got a coherent story, the most important thing in starting any book. Who cares about the writing or the characters or the world if, essentially, readers don't understand what's going on.

A finished book is like a luxury car. You don't go into a Lexus dealer to buy an engine and four wheels, even though (like the cohesiveness of your story) it's the most important thing. The engine is the foundation of the car, without it nothing else works or matters. Still it's not what SELLS the car, it just makes it run. The features that sell it are the paint job, the shape, the gas mileage, the safety, the brand, the leather interior. It's the same with books. After you've got your story is when you can start worrying about dressing it up and making it all glossy and pretty so that people WANT to drive it out of the lot and take it for a spin. But noone taking it anywhere if the engine doesn't work!
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