The first draft of anything is sh-t

May 21, 2006 1:03 PM

I just finished the first draft of the second half of my first book. Now I have to revise it, and I have to revise it good.

Now, I've never really written a true first draft before -- I have the bad habit of editing as I go. Because of this, a complete draft of the *first* half of this book took almost me a year to churn up (i'm *almost* ok with how it turned out). The first draft of the *second* half took me two months. But only because i divided it out into thirty sections and simply did not go back to a section once the day had passed in which i was supposed to work on it. Now i have a very fragmented chopfest -- I wouldn't even feel comfortable showing it to a friend to read through.

I think I have enough time for two more rounds of this length. Maybe three. But I'm stuck in this place where there are holes to fill on one hand, and ugly chunks to revise on the other. It's overwhelming, and I feel a pressing need to make this round much more thorough than the last. I need a strategy. Happy to hear advice off of yr cuff, or pointers to books-on-writing that deal specifically with revision processes.

posted by snortlebort to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

Like eating an elephant, it's easier if you do it one bite at a time.

Try reading it aloud all at one go and just putting sticky notes on manuscript pages with what's missing or needs to be changed, without actually stopping to do that work - and then once you've finished that, go back and do what you've noted. Rinse and repeat.
posted by joannemerriam at 2:30 PM on May 21, 2006

There's a point in the creation of any manuscript where what is on paper, despite glaring omissions and flaws, hangs together well enough to be understandable to a third party. At that point, and no sooner, do you have something with which an editor can help. If you are at that point, it may be useful to have a third party read it, and do some editing. It would be most useful if you could actually have an experienced editor do this, but that depends on your budget and goals. The big benefit to you as a writer of getting the help of what some describe as a developmental editor, is that you concentrate your creative time and effort in writing (or research completion), and can relax in the role of writer, since you need not be switching back and forth constantly, from creative to editorial roles.

If you feel you lack resources for hiring a developmental editor commercially, you should recognize that many freelance editors have experience working with authors on a limited budget, and can be creative about billing their services, or can help with finding publisher's advances to offset the cost of their efforts. Indeed, presenting a book to a press with recommendation and assistance of a respected freelance editor can be a good way of getting to publication.
posted by paulsc at 3:04 PM on May 21, 2006

How about you post the entire contents of the book as a wiki on some private (or public -- that would be cool) website and invite others to come and edit it for you or with you? You might run in to some problems with retaining your rights (people could just rip off the entire thing quite easily), but it would be a fun project.
posted by yellowbkpk at 8:07 PM on May 21, 2006