I thought I’d better check in, since I’ve been absent so much lately you might think I’d been sucked into my computer and am living an alternate existence inside my own fiction. That’s how it feels sometimes. I’ve finally finished the second draft of the novel in progress. This was a huge effort, mainly because I rewrote just about the whole thing. Except for one or two of the early chapters it’s almost unrecognizable compared to the first draft, with major point of view and character changes. I’m much happier with the resolution to the mystery. I’m reading back through, looking for the places the story slows down. There will be a lot of cuts, adjustments, and edits. Cuts, especially, because it’s astounding sometimes how much I have to write to get to what I want. It’s kind of like panning for gold. It’s fun, and all-consuming, but whether I’ll ever make my fortune at this is anyone’s guess. At least now I’m on the downhill part of this book’s journey.
Some of the most recent comments here were disrupted by a MySQL database error, so one or two had to be reconstituted. If you made a comment or attempted to during that time, or if a comment you made appears with a different timestamp, my apologies.
I hope everyone is enjoying the gear up toward winter and the holidays. For me it’s refreshing just to have some cooler, moister weather. We were expecting rain tonight, but now it’s looking less likely. That’s how it goes most years. Welcome to Southern California, where we have drought or floods and nothing in between. If it’s not an El Niño year, rain is only a rumor.
Excellent! In this revision, how do you feel about the characters? Do you think they’re as real with emotion as in Shadows Fall? Were any of the characters carried over from either of your prior works?
Comment by Ken — December 2, 2005 @ 9:22 pm
Excellent. T’is the season to complete novels. It is wrenching to finish a book isn’t it? Almost like you have to suddenly step out of a world you’ve been spending so much time in. Leave it behind, return to reality. Wrenching and kind of sad.
Comment by Eric Mayer — December 3, 2005 @ 11:03 am
Yes, this must feel good! Do you have a trusted reader go through it as well?
Comment by susan — December 3, 2005 @ 1:09 pm
Zounds and egad! Rewrite on second draft. No mean accomplishment. Hope you are satisfied with it. If you are, we, your readers, will be, also.
Comment by Rhubarb — December 3, 2005 @ 8:01 pm
Congrats! When I wrote my extensive second draft, I had a blast. I had dreaded the chore, but was startled by the new places I went - especially with POV.
Comment by Reenie — December 4, 2005 @ 9:32 am
[...] To answer some of your comments, I’m much happier with the characters in this second draft, and I think they’ll continue to grow, which is imp [...]
Pingback by Barbara W. Klaser — December 6, 2005 @ 3:10 pm
[...] Barbara W. Klaser completely re-wrote her second draft, even changing point-of-view characters. We’ve done that before. Quite dramatic changes can happen. [...]
Pingback by A novel idea » Other people’s second drafts — December 5, 2006 @ 2:25 am