Editing: Second Draft Alterations

Q: How do you write a good book?

A: You don’t “write” a good book— you edit until it finally becomes one.

Editing your novel… it’s kind of a big deal, isn’t it? Editing is literally the process that turns a semblance of a STORY into a captivating NOVEL that everyone will “ooh” and “ahh” over. It’s something we want to ACCOMPLISH, something we want to FOCUS ON, and something we have to do RIGHT. We can’t do it halfway or not give constant effort. It just won’t work like that. As I rewrite my novel, I’ve struggled with falling into this almost daze-like state. You know how when you’re driving down the highway at night and it’s kind of hypnotic the way the headlights from the other lane are coming and going. It’s a fairly constant rhythm of light, dark, light, dark… continued. At that moment, you start to lose focus and not really pay attention, and that’s when it’s easiest for you to miss something.

It’s the same with editing. You start re-writing all those words (and if you use a double editor as I do) it’s easy to just get into a writing trance, not edit, and just copy the same words down onto the second draft. Having all those little black shapes on the screen becomes hypnotic, and you lose focus, and you miss stuff.

*Sigh…* It’s frustrating. Trust me, I know. But, don’t worry. Over the past few months, I’ve been working on my self-editing skills and I’d like to share with you the processes that I’ve found work for me. Now, remember I’m DEFINITELY NO EXPERT and I don’t pretend to be… I’m just here to share some different ways to write and edit your short story, novel, or whatever creative work you have… as long as it involves words! ;) Let’s dive in, shall we?

Tip #1: Understand the Process…

The difference between a first draft and a second draft is the QUALITY of the work. In the first draft, your main focus is just getting your ideas down (And that is hard if you’re a perfectionist like me!) In the second draft, though, your main focus needs to be to clean up your ideas. Think of figure topiary. You first need the bush to grow before you can do anything pretty to it. It needs to be healthy and full before you start taking anything away. (This is like the first draft— you have to have the full story [bush] before you start taking things away.)

Next, you start roughing out the shape by trimming and pruning— get rid of unnecessary limbs that don’t go anywhere or distort the image. (This is like rewriting. You’re chopping away the unnecessary scenes. You’re moving things around, just trying to get the story cleaned up and streamlined.) Now our sculpture looks good! But………… it isn’t finished. Now we have to fix those final details, deepen the figure, and clean up those small, out-of-place leaves that you missed when you were roughing out the initial shape. (This is the final draft— when you edit solely for grammar and a few nuanced [but extremely important] aspects of your story. I hope this clears things up [and I hope you have a greater love for the art of topiary. Who knew it was so relatable!])

Tip #2: Take It Slow

Don’t try to rush through re-writing for the second draft. Like I said above, your focus in the second draft is to clean up the story, so you have to pay attention to the story. One thing I like to do is go through my first draft and make a list of all the important events. Not the scenes that I loved to write just for the fun of it… but the events that capture the heart of the story. The driving scenes— I get those down on a list and keep them near me while I’m re-writing. Another thing you can do: write down the main emotions of your story and keep them near so that way you can keep sight of the goal of your story— the “shape” that you’re trying to create!

Tip #3: Understand Your Goal

Have you read my world-building series yet? No? Are you serious??? 😭 Well… that’s okay if you haven’t gotten there yet. Something that I talked about there was the concept of Wide-Scope & Narrow Scope:

By wide or narrow “scope,” I don’t mean the different lens sizes on optical devices. The “scope” I’m referring to here is defined by Lexico.com as: The extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with or to which it is relevant.

Basically… the metaphysical vision. I hope that clears it up. No? Okay, um… the Realm of Relevancy? No?… oh, fine… big idea & small details.

The Wide Scope has to do with the larger ideas, like plot, character development, world-building… the IDEAS that construct the overall story. The Narrow Scope has to do with small, minute details that MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Such as grammar, word choice, sentence structure… the words that create the physical, alphabetical story. The things you’re gonna see on paper.

Why am I talking about this???

Well, because here we’re talking only about the Second Draft Alterations— not the final, and the Narrow Scope should be apparent in your third, or final, draft (you can have more than 3.) For your second draft, the only thing you should be focusing on is PLOT, CHARACTERS, and WORLD. Don’t waste the effort on grammatical perfection for a scene that you might not keep. Focus on just getting the story down and getting the overall character development and action to a place where you’re satisfied (and a place where your readers will be satisfied) before you focus on whether to use a comma or not.

Get the rough shape out, then make the tiny alterations to clean it up.

Tip #4: Know What You’re Changing

This can be so hard for any author to do by themselves. I mean, you’ve been working on this project for so long… it’s taken so many hours and effort, and knowing what to keep and what to get rid of can get hard. In the end, how do you know what fits and what doesn’t?

• TAKE A BREAK. Yeah……… taking a break is one of the HARDEST things for me to do, too. If I don’t write at least once daily, it feels like my thoughts are going a million miles an hour in every direction and I can’t keep up! I know a lot of writers feel that same way, but when you write daily, it can eventually hurt your creativity. The act becomes redundant, and I’m finding this is especially noticeable when re-writing your novel because, well, you’ve already written this scene… and there might be some level of dread to do this all over again.

I spent 5 years working on just PART ONE and two of my novel. It took me forever to feel like part one was good enough (and I still sometimes doubt whether it is.) It’s safe to say that I feel a little reluctant to go back and re-write everything that I honestly worked on for half a decade. *Sigh* What I found worked best was taking a break. It allowed me to have a fresher look at my work and understand more what needed to change.

• CALL ON THE EARLY BETA READERS. Let your early beta readers take a look at what you have so far and give you pointers on what might need to change. Look for people who fall into two demographics: Those who don’t have writing experience and those who do have writing experience. It’s good to have feedback from both because a reader could better find issues with the overall story or authenticity of a character while an author or writer might find issues with the delivery of the story. Readers might miss the “technical” details like those.

With this topic, one of the questions I’m always asking my early beta readers (aka, Mom and Dad right now) is: “What do you feel isn’t built up enough.” Another: “What are you looking forward to? What are some of your thoughts about what might happen.”

• WRITE BY HAND. Try writing a few paragraphs on paper. This is one thing I’ve recently started doing. First, I’ll read the chapter or scene I’m working on, then close the computer, and “rewrite” by hand. There’s something magical about having a pen in your fingers. It’s as if the words themselves come alive and all the feelings and thoughts within you are manifested through ink better than through a keyboard. The connection is, somehow, stronger. I don’t know… maybe it’s just me, but it’s a technique that has worked so far. ;)
  

Tip #5: Read Like A Maniac!

It has been beyond beneficial for me to constantly read— especially stories that inspire me. Why is that? Well, for one, it just helps with “writer’s morale” by kicking up excitement and bringing inspiration. Plus, it helps separate me from my own book so when I go back, I have a clearer head. (Reading is a great thing to do when “taking that break.”) But another reason is to study the craft! Read to understand how authors keep your attention. Pay attention to the dialogue, the pacing, and the tension. Don’t be afraid to take notes on what works… and what loses your interest. Read to familiarize yourself with the way authors describe their worlds. How do they weave vivid descriptions into the action? How does dialogue move the story forward? How does the tension keep you engaged and turning the page? These are things to pay attention to when you dive into your favorite books! I hope this post (while lengthy) has been helpful! The most important thing in rewriting is to just have fun. This is your story and you LOVE it, so find ways to get excited. Rewriting is tedious work, but it’s every bit of worth it!

Well, that’s all I have for now!