Hooray, I've Finished the First Draft. Now It's Time for the Real Work!
Last Thursday I wrote the final scene in the first draft of the book I’m working on. Break out the champagne! Throw a party!
Well, not exactly. Now the real work starts!
First drafts are also called rough drafts for a reason. There’s the hint of a book there, but it’s nowhere near done. And “finishing” involves a whole lot more than checking grammar and spelling and improving a few sentences here and there.
Inevitably there are holes to be filled in, scenes to be cut, puzzle pieces completely missing that need to be supplied, rearranging to be done. . . That’s what’s known as the developmental edit.
Only after you’ve completed a developmental edit does it make sense to actually edit the words and sentences, aka line editing.
When I was drafting my first book, I hadn’t learned that lesson yet, so I spent a lot of time (and killed a few trees printing pages) when the book was nowhere near ready for line edits.
My plan is to go through a developmental edit on this book, then set it aside for a while while I pull book number 1 out of the drawer where it’s been resting since the first of the year and, hopefully, finish editing it and getting it publication ready.
That’s the plan. Do you hear god laughing yet?
What I’m Reading
The Murderous Type by Sue Minix
This is the second book in the series featuring novelist-turned-bookstore-owner Jen Dawson. She’s tired of hearing people ask her when the next book is coming out, and trying hard to focus on writing it, until the town’s nasty sheriff, the man everyone loves to hate, keels over dead. Poisoned, in fact. And her fingerprints are on the bottle of wine the poison was in.
She has no choice but to investigate. Really.
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
I grabbed this book when I saw it on sale, because I really loved the movie (starring Helen Mirren) that was based on it. A Muslim Indian family of restaurant owners leaves home after their restaurant is burned down and the mother of the main character dies in the fire. They travel for several years, sampling cuisine in different regions and countries, and finally end up in Europe.
They accidentally settle in a small village in the middle of France, where they start a new restaurant. It’s directly across the street from the sophisticated inn and restaurant owned by a conservative and entitled local resident whose family lived there for generations. Her clients include dignitaries from all over France.
Needless to say, she’s less than pleased at the brash, noisy, colorful Indian family and their spicy food. She decides to make their lives so miserable they’ll leave.
Her plan backfires wonderfully.
This is an excellent novel. It’s beautifully written, the story is compelling, and the culinary imagery and descriptions of the dishes which permeate the pages are entrancing. It’s worth reading just for that!
Understand, I’m almost always of the opinion that the book is better than the movie, but in this case I have to admit I like the move better. Which tells you how good the movie is, because the book is excellent.
Notable Quotes
Enveloped in a suffocating cloud of paralysis and regret, I fetched my coat and hat. Stepping over the threshold, I took Clifford’s arm to steady myself. The moment of truth was upon me.
- Poison in Picadilly by Kelly Oliver
I love the imagery here, of a cloud of paralysis and regret. Not just a cloud, but a suffocating cloud. Very evocative.
It is quite a normal response, so psychology tells us, and I am a firm believer in psychology when it agrees with my own opinions.
- Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters
This statement is quintessential Amelia Peabody, the main character in a long series of wonderful novels. “Opinionated” is insufficiently descriptive for Amelia. And she’s always right! I’ve written about this series before, as it’s one of my all-time favorites. If you haven’t discovered it yet, the first in the series is Crocodile on the Sandbank.
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Wise Words
Last week’s words were regulated or relegated, and I’m happy to say my readers, as usual, showed their intelligence and acumen by selecting relegated as the better word choice. The quote was:
She sat in the front seat while I was _____ to the back, which meant I couldn’t have the conversation I really wanted to have with my aunt.
- The Mysterious Case of the Missing Motive by Michele Pariza Wacek
To regulate is to bring order, method, and uniformity to something. To relegate is to banish, or to assign a place of insignificance or oblivion. When I was growing up, children were often relegated to the kids’ table at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
In our quote, there was no question of order and method, but instead, the narrator being exiled to the back seat of the car.
Congratulations! Hopefully God will be too busy with other things for a while to mess with your editing...