Comments on Carey's Ramblings: From Draft to Craft

Very coolio new site Gemini! And congrats on meeti...

2007-06-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

Very coolio new site Gemini! And congrats on meeting your goals.

I hear you about the other set of eyes. I just found a TYPO!!! in my little one page query that I sent out to MANY people. The brain just refuses to see certain errors.

Right now, I'm in the craft process. I'm currently...

2007-06-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm in the craft process. I'm currently working on Book Two in my YA series and have a goal to finish a first draft by Nov 1st. I met my first deadline of 66 pages just yesterday.

Book One of the series needs to be revised (according to some consistent comments made by some agents) so I'm having another set of eyes look it over. Because, truthfully, I could read that thing three times over and still think it's fine.

FYI - I unveiled my new author site today and am giving away tons of prizes. Just go to www.celisedowns.com/blog for details. I noticed that I'm in your blogroll. While you'll be redirected to the new site, it would probably be easier for you to change the URL in the blogroll.

Well, Tessa, I definitely recommend Margie's outli...

2007-05-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Well, Tessa, I definitely recommend Margie's outlines--and I do want to join VaNo,Lindsey.

I'm having one of those whatever-made-me-think-I-could-write? moments. Dang that internal editor!

I've always been more of a revise as I go person, ...

2007-05-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've always been more of a revise as I go person, but lately it's cramping my drafting style, so I'm trying to just keep moving forward.

I heard a rumor that you were gonna join VaNo! You can, even if you're just revising. We want you! :)

I don't know. When I start to hear things like "7...

2007-05-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know. When I start to hear things like "7 edits for 7 different purposes," I must admit my eyes glaze over.

I think I'm just not a person who works well with "methods," be they writing methods or ... other kinds of methods. Although, I haven't really tried it, so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'd benefit from that approach.

I'd like to think that if you did that with one book, you could internalize a lot of the techniques and work them in as you write the next book.

As for my internal editor - I've given up trying to turn her off. We've come to a working compromise. I write very slowly. For GOTH, I'm guessing I spent at least 1 hour at the keyboard for every page I drafted. With GOB, I'm trying to cut that down to 1/2 hour or so.

If GOTH gets rejected by everyone who has it now, I'm going to put it through a major edit. I may look at these methods then. And by then, India, I'll be counting on you to tell me which ones were the most helpful!

Maggie, Oh how I envy you!

2007-05-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Maggie, Oh how I envy you!

Sounds interesting, Terrio. Coincidentally, I just...

2007-05-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sounds interesting, Terrio. Coincidentally, I just bought Novelist's Boot Camp to donate to a literacy auction. Hmm...auction's not until Tuesday. I may have to read it myself before then or buy another copy.

Bev, I can only hope I get better at this as I go along. Sounds like you have learned a lot from your first WIP.

The first book really had a rough draft. This boo...

2007-05-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

The first book really had a rough draft. This book I'm not writing the first draft as rough. I don't want to have to go back and polish as much as I had to. After I finish my word count for the day, it's gets a work over to bring it up to par.

I just attended a Writer's Bootcamp by Todd Stone ...

2007-05-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

I just attended a Writer's Bootcamp by Todd Stone yesterday and he had great tips for this. You can find them in his Novelist's Boot Camp book. He suggests making 7 passes through your MS each with a different purpose. First for characters then for objectives, dialogue, description and narrative, action, logic and a misc pass for anything else. He even suggests printing it out, marking all the changes on each pass and then making those changes all at one time.

I'm still in the early drafting stage but this sounded like a very good idea to me.

I think I'm in Julia's camp. I've never done draft...

2007-05-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

I think I'm in Julia's camp. I've never done drafts or super-huge revisions on anything...that would just kill the book for me. For TRR I had to excise something but its replacement was pretty easy to insert. When I'm stuck I just go back and tweak until I'm ready to write "new" again. The two books I finished before FaLit very probably need some major overhauling but my head's not there anymore. But how I'd love an editor to tell me to make some changes! :)

I also cannot finish (or start) anything without t...

2007-05-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

I also cannot finish (or start) anything without turning the editor off. I really have the most trouble with the start part. Kinda like putting on your running shoes and hitting the road. Once I'm out there, I'm okay.

But once the draft is done, then what? How do you make it better? CPs have proved invaluable for me. Beyond that though, there are techniques that we can learn formally, in workshops, reading etc.

I read somewhere that Julia Quinn doesn't really go through drafts but polishes as she writes. For me this is too difficult. Maybe in another hundred years I'll be at that stage.

Congrats on Suzie's House, Alice. Have enjoyed your postings immensely.

Oops. Posted too soon.I am still a very big belie...

2007-05-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Oops. Posted too soon.

I am still a very big believer in turning the internal editor off in order to get the rough draft done, and don't turn it on again until it is done! If I hadn't learned to do that, I would never have completed anything.

Alice

I'm very much in the craft process. I'm supposed ...

2007-05-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

I'm very much in the craft process. I'm supposed to be giving it a quick once-over before sending it to my CP's - Thanks FF!- but I'm fighting the urge to make huge changes. I've already torn this book down to it's essential elements, restructured it, then built into something much more substantial than it started out.

It's funny you should talk about switching the internal editor on and off. I don't do that anymore. The Suzie's House blogs are rough drafts.

Alice