A Progressive Checklist for Writers Part II

by Stephanie Morrill

(Psst - if you missed Part I, you can find it here.)

First of all, a quick reminder that the 500 word writing contest is open for one more week. Get details on getting thyself entered here.

Also, now that I no longer smell like campfire, I've rounded up the judges for this contest. Yay!

They are:

Shellie Neumeier, creator of the NextGen conference, author of Driven (among other books) and an all-around cool lady.

Erica Vetsch, New York Times bestselling author, Carol Award Finalist, and my first ever writing friend.

We needed super special judges for this contest, and I was thrilled by their enthusiastic "Yes!" when I asked them to consider it.

Moving on with our progressive checklist. So you've figured out a few basic things about plotting, you know to give you main character a goal or an objective, and you've even written a story from beginning to end. Now what?

Step 3 - Edit your first draft

Now that you can write a book from start to finish, it's time to learn how to edit one. If you still believe in this manuscript, then invest the time in editing it before you move to another project. Notice I'm not asking if you like  the book, because I honestly I think most of us are pretty sick of a manuscript by the time we type THE END.

Editing is a completely different beast than writing. Which isn't a big surprise since writing and editing utilize different parts of the brain. Or so I've been told. I haven't, like, done my own research over here.

Or maybe, for whatever reason, you don't think this book is worth editing. I made that choice with a few of my early manuscripts. So if you're not going to edit it, then your goal will be to repeat step two (writing a full manuscript) until you finally churn out one that feels worthy.

If you've never edited a complete book before, it can be daunting. (Heck, if you have edited a complete book before, it can feel daunting.) I have three recommendations for you:

• Give yourself space between writing your first draft and editing. Not just a couple days, but a couple weeks. Stephen King takes 6 weeks, and I've decided if it works for him, that's all the argument for it that I need.
• When the time comes to edit, read your book in as few sittings as possible. Hopefully one, but more likely two or three. This is mostly to become familiar with your story again.
• After your read-through, focus on big stuff that needs to be fixed. Like a plot line that went nowhere or a pointless character who should be deleted. When you've taken care of all that big stuff, then I encourage you to get really fussy with it. But often with my early manuscripts, I found so many big things that needed work, I would retire the manuscript before I got to the fussy stage.

Once you've written a complete manuscript and put it through some form of the editing process (whether you've done some serious rewrites or done a read through and decided it's not worth it) it's time to take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses, and also to evaluate what worked for you and what didn't.

When I read through the manuscript for my second book, here were some of the things I listed:

• I tried to write this book out of order - just write whatever scenes I felt like. That did not work for me. It was tough to keep track of my timeline, and my character arcs were much worse than the last book. Next time I'll write in order.
• Ugh, I'm totally the main character of this book. Again! I can't keep writing books about my life.
• My secondary characters are so "main character focused." I need to figure out how to give them problems of their own...

The list went on and on. So long that I decided to just scrap the project and move on with my life. (A move I've never regretted. That book is a long, boring mess.) Once you've made your list, you'll have a choice to make - do I believe in my book enough to fix everything on my list, or do I take what I learned from this experience and move on to a new project?

And before you dive into editing this manuscript or move on to your next project, take some time to study up on those weaknesses. Was your villain boring? Read up on how to craft better villains. Did your ending lack oomph? Study oomph-y endings.

We'll continue with the next step on Wednesday. Have a great day!