Karen Comer

Collecting Stories

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Book Reviews
    • Adult Fiction
    • Adult Non-Fiction
    • Young Adult Fiction
    • Children’s Fiction
    • Picture Books
  • Writing Resources
    • Writing Resources – Adults
    • Writing Resources – Children
    • Writing Notes
  • Editing and Workshop Services
  • Reading List
    • Reading List 2018
    • Reading List 2017
    • Reading List 2016
    • Reading List 2015
  • Blog
  • Contact

Second drafts

May 21, 2021 by Karen Comer 3 Comments

Second drafts are wonderful to work on because there is so much that is wrong with them and therefore, they are infinitely improvable! At least, that’s the case for me.

I’m editing the second draft of my young adult verse novel. It’s still very loose at this stage, so I’m focusing on the big picture rather than the smaller details. I’m thinking about:

  • would my characters really do this?
  • is the pace too fast or too slow?
  • is there tension in every scene?
  • what is the balance between my two protagonists?
  • how are my characters working to achieve their goals?
  • is the antagonist believable, with a strong enough motivation to stop the protagonists from reaching their goals?
  • and always, always, always going to back to the theme of my book – how do my characters belong in their worlds, yet still express themselves to honour their authenticity?

I’m using Alan Watt’s The 90 day rewrite as my guide. He outlines the main plot points, with lots of key ideas to discover what your story is really about in this draft.

My second draft is full of predictable mistakes. I’ve changed a couple of the characters’ names. I’ve wandered down a rabbit hole, and need to delete that hole entirely. I’ve moved scenes around because they were in the wrong order. I’ve merged two characters together.

I love working on a second draft because it’s so satisfying to fix. The mistakes are so glaring and the solutions so obvious, that the manuscript improves every time I breathe on it.

I’m trying to finish this draft in an impossibly short self-imposed deadline of a month, so I can send it to a friend who is equal parts critic and cheer squad. This means she will rip it to shreds but will tell me I can fix it.

So the third draft will be equally satisfying because I’ll have her notes to help me.

It’s the fourth draft, when I need to focus on developing the emotions of the characters, the nuances of the plot and the subtleties of language, that it becomes hard. It’s not quite singing yet, but it’s not so obvious as to how to elevate my writing so that it does sing.

But that’s at least three months away… nothing to worry about now!

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
«
»

Filed Under: Editing, Writing, Young adult Tagged With: second draft

Comments

  1. Pamela says

    May 21, 2021 at 7:39 am

    Onwards and upwards. Go Karen. You can do it. I’m very excited thinking about your finished, published book.💕💕👏👏

    Reply
  2. Kathryn Smith says

    May 21, 2021 at 7:54 am

    Your positive attitude just bounces off the screen Karen. Best wishes Kathryn

    Reply
  3. Terri says

    May 21, 2021 at 8:45 am

    Great to hear you are working on your novel, Karen. Good luck!

    Terri.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with me

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Structural editing and aborio rice
  • Author interview – Victoria Carless
  • Taking stock – June
  • The way of dog – book review
  • In conversation with Hanya Yanagihara

Copyright © 2022 · Karen Comer website by LMB web design

Copyright © 2022 · Blossom Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.