Please welcome writer Richard Buxton back on the blog today ... he's generously come along to share his 5 top tips for redrafting. The Indoor Writer is applying all of these to her novel (now in third draft), but some of these apply to any form of fiction.
Richard Buxton
is studying for an M.A. is Creative Writing at Chichester University.
He has recently completed a novel set in the American Civil War and also writes
historical, contemporary and experimental short stories. He dabbles
in poetry but really shouldn’t. He is a member of the West Sussex
Writers and lives in Worthing.
Twitter: @richardbuxton65
1 - Start with a reduction draft
Chances are you’re going
to work through many drafts, each concentrating on a different aspect: plot,
character, drama. I’d recommend you start with a draft where you look to reduce
the word count. You can nip out sentences, paragraphs and sometimes whole
scenes that you won’t have to sweat over later. If you have thoughts on character or plot, put them in a log
for later drafts.
2 - Get someone to read it
But don’t, while drunk on
the euphoria of finishing the first draft, send it out to all your friends and
relations. I guarantee you’ll regret it. There are only two possible
outcomes. Either they shower you
with praise – this is actually useless in terms of developing the book – or
they’ll say something that you’ll want to punch them for every time you see
them. It has to be someone who understands writing. Above all, someone who’s
opinion you respect, but who won’t be bringing up your plot flaws down the pub
or over Christmas dinner. But remember, it’s your baby; no one else’s.
3 - Handling of time
How is time handled in
your novel? A strong, forward moving narrative is often best supported by the
simplest handling of time. Has your character had to dip into their childhood
more times than you are comfortable with? Do you beautifully paint a place and
time at the beginning of a chapter only to go into flashback from the second
paragraph? Could a flashback be softened to a simpler memory? Does the reader
need to know all this, or are you really writing character notes to yourself?
4 - Visualise your plot
Get an A1 pad, or better
yet a whiteboard, and draw time along the vertical axis. Then sketch in your
plot as it’s presented in the book.
Put in the key events as milestones, draw arcs for the main story line
and the sub-plots. Then stand back and see what you’ve created. Are there
sufficient subplots and payoffs to keep a reader happy? Is there a satisfactory
convergence of plot lines towards the climax? Maybe one plot line doesn’t
sufficiently relate to the others. Do you need it?
5 - Be precise about emotion
It’s really easy to write
a good, well-choreographed, visual scene without ever having asked yourself
what are the emotions in play. Identify the emotional highpoint of the scene.
Have you built up to this? Do your characters' emotions change or intensify?
Often, just by getting the emotions clear you’ll draw out the drama.
All good tips. Thank you, Richard!
(Now as I'm currently reading the finished version of Richard's novel I'm a little nervous about his right hook ...)
I live in Brighton, UK, and I'm a sea-lover, star-gazer, film and football fan.
I've sneaked on here while LitPig is snoozing in the spring sunshine. The theme of this brief post is NEVER give up. I try never to give up on a short story if I truly love it and keep trying with competitions even when there's no hint of success. One such writing competition is the annual Fish International Short Story Prize. I've been submitting entries to that one since 2010. The winners and listed came out last week for 2014/2015 - read them here. I wasn't hopeful of getting anywher ... but there I am on the shortlist (the last name!). And when I saw it I almost cried. Didn't win (or come close) but I didn't care. For me this was one very personal measure of success. We all judge our progress in different ways and that's what makes us unique. For me this was a particularly special moment in my writing career to date.
