It’s the first Wednesday of the month. Time for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group posts! We support each other by releasing insecurities offering and asking for advice. Join us by clicking https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
June 2 question – For how long do you shelve your first draft, before reading it and re-drafting? Is this dependent on your writing experience and the number of stories/books under your belt?
The awesome co-hosts for the June 2 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, Lee Lowery, and Rachna Chhabria!
My writing style changes depending on the project, but here are my Go To 3 Steps.
Step 1 – Pencil & Ink
I write everything by hand and have the calluses to prove it. Writing longhand allows the story to create its own neural pathways. I’m a lefty. Pencil and ink coats the side of my pinky and palm daily. It spreads, but studies have purported pencil/pen helps to better absorb and retain information versus typing. I don’t know if that’s true for everyone. It works for me. When I pause on a project to work on a new one (which is often) it’s easier to circle back around and jump back in. I’m a scheduler/outliner in theory, and a pantser in denial.
Step 2 – Every. 10. Pages.
My first edit is typing my long and short hand out. Typing is a different delivery system and allows me to flesh out my characters and refine dialogue, adding and subtracting as I go. How often do I spell check? Every. 10. Pages. King jokes in Room 1408 about the banality of evil and the boring monotonous hotel room being the 7th Circle of Hell. No. Spell checking an entire novel from beginning to end is the 7th Circle.
Step 3 – Seek and Destroy
I go through a plethora of pages multiple times with red ink and kill my babies. Scenarios I thought were great, but now find cliche. Sarcasm I swore was hilarious somehow fell lame. I seek and destroy. Once it’s tidied up enough I pass it onto beta readers. Bless you all! After I get feed back I’m scanning through their red ink. Some suggestions I take. Some I ignore. Filled with crippling self-doubt, second guessing the entire plot and character arc I send out the manuscript to be rejected over and over until (if I’m lucky) it finds a home. If it doesn’t I shelve it, contemplate on how to fix it while hoping in vain the answer will come to me in a dream.
What does your editing/re-drafting process look like? I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend, and Happy IWSG Day!
Hi Adrienna, thanks for sharing your writing style. I write picture book manuscripts by hands, one draft after another until I’m satisfied, then I type it on the laptop.
Rachna Chhabria
Co-host IWSG
Hi Rachna!
Good to know I’m not alone with carpal tunnel. Ha. I hope your lockdown is over soon. Thanks again for co-hosting today!
Hi Adrienne, the a was a typo 🙁
No worries! My name auto-corrects five different ways. We writers can’t abide by typos can we? Thanks again!
When writing, I do a mix of computer and longhand. Depends on where I am. When I write longhand, it’s green ink. I always edit on paper with red ink. And I’m thinking of adding purple ink to the mix, because the people who live in my head are demanding it. They don’t explain.
Love it! I use multiple colors as well. I even use different colors doodling in page corners, and medium point red pen for particularly nasty edits. Happy IWSG Day!
I used to write by hand first, but no longer do. So I type the first draft out fully. I don’t edit while writing, so I jot down any notes that come up that I want to revisit. I go over these and a first edit on the screen, then print out the story and red-pen it for the big edit. I then re-type it fresh (as in open a blank document and re-type the novel/story), do another read-through, and send it to beta readers. Then another round of edits when their notes come back.
Thanks for sharing Shannon. Each individual’s creative process fascinates me. There’s no wrong way to do it, and we’re all deconstructing/reconstructing the work as we go. Happy IWSG Day!
There’s no doubting the fact that writing in pen & ink (or pencil) has a totally different feel to typing, but… I type so fast and write so slowly that I only do the first. It enables me to (almost) keep up with my flow of thoughts, which writing never would. I’m curious about people who write on their phones. I guess they’re able to use all their fingers, whereas I can only manage to peck out with my index finger on a phone. But as I love to write in pen & ink, that’s how I journal.
I marvel over the phone thing as well, Deb. I use my phone to take notes and dictation when interviewing subjects for articles and contract work, but I can’t imagine tackling bigger undertakings solely on my phone. Stories I read about people drafting full novels on phones during their commute to and from work sound crazy to me. Proof there’s no right or wrong way to produce work.