#66: Finished the Second Draft of My Novel

And I can’t believe it took me eight months to do it.

Welcome to another Writing Update—a weekly journal where I document the ups and downs of my writing life. I wrote a novel in 2017. The first draft, anyway. It was 95,000 words and took me four months finish. I was proud of that and put it aside for six weeks to clear my mind. The six weeks become two months really, and I found it difficult to get back into it. I knew that the book had problems, but how could I possibly dig through a heap of so many words and fix them? Well, now I know.

I’ve worked on first drafts before this book, but this was my first proper edit. In the beginning, I had no process. I was making things up as I went, failing more often than not. There I was, gutting the thing chapter by chapter, unable to tell whether I was making things better or worse. Even reading the manuscript was excruciatingly painful sometimes, triggering intense bouts of self-doubt.

I dug deeper and discovered even more shit. And I kept digging and found the first nuggets of something. Hard to say whether that was gold, but some chapters were good. Surprisingly good. I decided to see this project through.

It was hardly smooth sailing from there. I got stuck in a rut for a while, then I discovered a couple of giant plot holes. On the other hand, I had a number of amazingly productive periods, burning through chapter after chapter like there was no tomorrow. I used to hate revisions with, but I found my stride eventually. In a way, this book taught me how to edit.

So, what now?

While I’m happy with where the book is at the moment, it isn’t done yet. I’ve collected a long list of to-dos over the past couple of months. For the third draft, instead of sweeping through the manuscript chapter by chapter, I’ll be going through that list and making small amendments here and there. We’ll see how that goes. Then I’ll review the first couple of chapters to ensure the beginning is the best that I can make it. After that, I might need to do another sequential pass for prose.

I hope that it won’t take so long!

What I am reading

I read The Big Sleep this week. It’s Raymond Chandler’s first book which introduced the private detective Philip Marlowe. Considering it was published in 1939, this hardboiled crime classic has a lot of grit. Chandler’s prose is punchy and immediately recognisable. The plot didn’t stand the test of time as well, but overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith

This week, I’ll be reading Zadie Smith’s collection of essays Changing My Mind.

The third week of my November short story reading challenge went well. Here are the stories I read:


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