No, I'm not talking about the decade.
When I wrote The Hollows, I wrote the complete draft before editing a word of it. The first draft weighed in at nearly 170,000 words. Rewriting it was a long and plodding progress, from which it finally emerged at just under 130,000.
The lag between writing 'The End' and having something that's fit to show potential readers is always the worst part, especially as by the time I've finished a novel I've usually really, really had enough of those characters and that world for a good long while.
A major part of it is simply paring the draft down, based on the old adage that '2nd draft = (1st draft - 10%.)' So I decided to take a leaf out of another writer's book - Joe Lansdale's, in this case - and try rewriting subsequent books as I go.
I usually get a good few chapters in before starting on that side of things, to make sure the book is flowing nicely; that it's hit its stride and found its voice. At first, I'd try writing in the morning and then editing the day's work in the evening. More recently, I've moved to editing each chapter after completion, trimming its word count down by at least 10% - often more - so that all that remains is what's essential.
Obviously, sometimes I fall behind, but never too far. When there are topics to research, or the story needs to be retconned so some new revelation or development makes sense, I make a note, and do my best not to let those proliferate.
That way, when I finally type 'The End,' the book may not be completely finished but it's a lot closer to it. And I'm not faced with the mammoth task of cutting 40,000 words out of a finished manuscript.
It does have its disadvantages, though.
There are always false starts and wrong turns in a book, where you end up having to go back and delete days' worth of work because something wasn't working. Or the process of tightening things up means that you realise a chapter was rambling and overwritten, which again means hundreds or thousands of words may need to go. This is a particular danger in a slow-burning supernatural story, where little eerie hints accumulate gradually among the details of daily life. Writing isn't just about what you put in, it's about what you leave out. Selection and choice.
There are times when what's actually left after editing can seem pitifully small, to the point the you despair of ever getting to the end. Which brings me to what I'd started to call 'the Terrible 60s.'
My current Work In Progress has been stuck around the 60,000 word mark for well over a month. This was for a number of reasons. There were straggling, overblown chapters that needed to be cut back, as well as the normal editing process on each chapter when I finished. There were times when I felt painfully stuck.
And yes, there were days when I goofed off to work on other ideas - a short story, or any one of several novels that suggested themselves.
That's not a bad thing. I actually think it's part of the process now. There's always a point where the Work In Progress feels too much like hard work, and other, fresher ideas seem more exciting. Bunking off to write notes, or a couple of chapters, can be just the break you need. Better still, when the Work In Progress is finished and you want to write something new, you don't have to dither over a blank page, starting and abandoning idea after idea. You can just pick up an existing work and carry it on.
But sooner or later you have to come back to the Work In Progress, and its word count won't have magically increased in your absence. Which can make it feel as though you're getting nowhere.
But ultimately, the process of writing is about the journey, not the destination. A strange thing to say, maybe, when the whole point of the exercise is to produce a finished story, but also true. And finally, the latest edited chapter got the word count to around 69500 words. The chapter after that is a big one and is taking a long time to complete, and will need some tight editing afterwards. Even so, the novel's word count will finally be in the 70K range, which is a huge relief.
More importantly, I think I can see how the final leg of the novel is going to shape up, how the various threads and elements that have been setting themselves up will come together. Once I've sketched out that final part of the story, I hope, I'll be on the way to the end. Although no doubt there'll still be bumps in the road between here and there.
And after that, well, who knows? I'll try and keep you posted...
Till next time,
Daniel :)
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