Thought I’d touch base with you about how it’s going with HYBRID, book 3 in my mystery series. I’ve been working through Mary Burton’s draft process. I’m preparing to move forward on the third draft.
Here’s the third step Mary’s draft process:
“Third Draft/Fine-Tuning: Focus not only what is said, but also how it is said. Identify and clearly define story themes and character motivations. Does each scene and chapter end with a page-turner?”
Okay, so I think I’ve done a good deal of this already as I’ve been going through the other drafts. If something jumped out at me, I changed it, even though I was not necessarily “supposed” to. But I know it needs more fine tuning, which I’m preparing to do.
Also, I’ve sort of leaped ahead and fallen behind at the same time. I’ve already sent a draft to an early reader. She prefers an early read. For me, it’s wonderful getting her help so early on because I often come in short on my word count and she lets me know where she’d like more in the story—that doesn’t mean I will take her advice, though sometimes I do and it’s worked out well.
I’ve sort of fallen behind because I now see that I have another chapter to write after finishing step two. So, my plan is to write that chapter, get back the responses from my reader, and then move on to the third draft and fine-tuning. So maybe I’m not really behind, but in between?
Following Mary’s process has been interesting and helpful. It’s turning out to be more a “guideline” for me rather than something I rigidly follow, and I’m betting that Mary would be okay with that. But in any case, this isn’t a class and she’s not really tutoring me, I’ve just taken this upon myself in an effort to be more efficient with my drafts. Mary’s blog post on the draft process struck a chord with me and I’m glad to give it a go.
In the mean time, I’ve just gotten in the page proofs from SCRAPPED (book two in the series) and so I’ve got plenty to do, as always.
