So some have you have been following along with the writing process of my third book in the Cumberland Creek Mystery series. Because I’m always looking at ways to be a more efficient and better writer, I decided to try Mary Burton’s draft process. I ran across this on her blog and it made such a perfect sense to me. (For a reminder of what her process is, click here and go to her initial blog post. Here, here, here and here are my previous blog posts. ) So I thought I’d give it a go.
Overall, the process forced me to slow down a good bit. I am a fast writer, which is a good thing in some aspects. But when it comes to catching typos and other problems, it hasn’t served me well. My brain works for quickly even when I reading and I think that it skips over any mistake I make. (that is not the case with other writer’s mistakes. I catch those, only too well. ) I think because I approached this book is a more organized fashion, I was able to let the “final” draft sit for a good bit longer. This helps immensely. The other thing that really helped was printing the manuscript out. The eye catches more and different typos on the physical page than the computer.
I think I’ll use this process, or some variation of it, in the future. I’ve just turned in the manuscript to my Kensington editor. I feel really good about this book, even thought the story became more complicated than what I anticipated. I’m hoping he notices a difference in how much cleaner the manuscript is. In the mean time, it’s time for me to set aside thoughts about book three—and time to focus on book 2: SCRAPPED, which will be published on December 31. Stay tuned for contests and signing dates and so on.
