Journey Of A Novel

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3rd Draft

Sifting through mental word salad

Tanya V 19 February 2024

Part of the submission guidelines when I submitted my work for assessment was that only the first 50 pages were accepted. As a result I redrafted those pages, then redrafted again, and again until I was satisfied enough to send them off. I made it to seven redrafts in total. This covered the first three chapters. The rest of the manuscript remained at draft number three.

Now that I am moving ahead and refining drafts with regularity again I have worked through the first three chapters quickly. One major change I made was editing chapter one into two chapters, which has the follow on effect of renumbering all of the chapters. This means that retrospectively I have only redrafted what was chapter one and two. Chapter two is now chapter three... That leaves me at chapter four, which was chapter three and the final chapter in the submission. Once I have redrafted this chapter I will be stepping back into early draft territory.

Factoring in story, characters, setting, imagery, the list goes on, leaves me overwhelmed on top of keeping track of where I am at in the story, with editing and chapter number changes.

To keep moving forward I keep reminding myself that I don’t have to, I get to. That seems to be helpful.

It’s been a while since I’ve muddled through the collection of words that make up the story I am writing. I suspect that there’ll be a lot of work to do. I have put a lot of work into the early chapters – work being: doubt, second guessing, sifting through mental word salad, and navigating storytelling elements.

And so I have reached the next hurdle. It’s looming over my head. I will keep my head down though with my attention on what is before me and a blinkered view on the distraction that the enormity of the task presents.

I’m clueless

Tanya V 25 November 2022

I have given my 3rd draft to a published writer and a PHD academic for feedback on how it reads, what is and isn’t clear, what they want to know more about, and any other input that they are happy to share. I’ve told the both that I have no expectation on what or how they respond to reading my work. For both of them I’ve let them know that if nothing else I hope they enjoy the read.

I received notes from the writer, and along with being grateful I am pleasantly surprised at how well it was received. Yes there are suggestions and questions and feedback pointing to sections in need of improvement, but there’s fewer than I expected. In my mind the first and last chapters are the problem children in my story, only one of these two chapters was pointed out as needing development. I’m a bit dumbfounded that there isn’t more suggestions and questions about the draft than what was returned to me.

There is still feedback to come from the other reader which I hope to have by the end of this week.

While I’m waiting I’ve been reading ancient tales to keep my head in the realm that I’ve taken my story structure from. I’ve been thinking about the feel of the novel, the bigger picture. It’s been a relief to have some breathing space while I come to terms with the next steps.

Before sharing my work I wasn’t committed to the idea of publishing. The feedback that I’ve had so far has encouraged me to take the leap in that direction. I’m clueless about how to proceed, but that sums up this whole journey and I have managed to get this far.

The waiting game

Tanya V 11 November 2022

Much to my surprise I’ve completed my 3rd draft. I reached this point by creating one double spaced file of my 2nd draft. I printed it, then sat with pencil in hand and read it through all in one sitting. When I was done I made a copy of the file, called it the 3rd draft, made the changes, then printed and repeated the process. With each reading I had a different focus. The first read through was for structure, consistency and punctuation errors. The next read through was with an eye on theme, imagery and any obvious doubling up of phrasing or words. The result is a file that serves as my 3rd draft.

My word count is just under 26 000 words. I thought that I’d written more. When I printed the 2nd draft the word count was closer to 30 000, but I was ruthless with my pencil and the delete key when I read and reread. Maybe I’ll write more. I’ll wait for feedback and insights from a few people that have kindly agreed to read it for me. This input will be invaluable because at this point I feel like I’m standing in front of a huge painting so close to it that the tip of my nose touches against the canvas, and I’m trying to see the whole picture from that up-close perspective.

It all makes sense in my head which doesn’t count for much when others read my work.

So now it’s a waiting game before I proceed. I’ll wait for feedback, I’ll wait to assess how and if I should change, edit, add, or better my draft. I’ll wait to see if I have written something engaging for others or only for myself to engage in the sense of purpose that the creative process facilitates.

The ugly lights

Tanya V 29 October 2022

The ugly lights is what my friends and I call the house lights that are turned on at the end of the night when the party is over and it’s time to get going. A ‘good night’ is when you stay as long as you can but leave before the ugly lights come on; it’s all in the timing.

I’m not confident that I can apply the same sort of timing to my writing, I think that perhaps the ugly lights have already come on and that I need to just step away from the keyboard. BUT! It doesn’t feel done to me. I’m tinkering and tweaking and walking away to give some space then returning with a sigh and a head scratch at the state of the final chapter.

A friend gave me a writing book that details the process; I skipped to the end hoping for some insight about my final chapter only to be met with an overview of the incongruousness of fiction and reality. The author talked about suspension of disbelief versus reality, and how life doesn’t have tidy endings so it can be challenging for a writer to end their story.

It was a good point and I take it.

Within the game plan that I’ve made for myself the state of this chapter is the most incomplete that I have left any chapter to date, but I am going to suck it up and move on. I promised myself at least 3 drafts so reluctantly I will move forward. In starting over from the beginning again with fresh eyes I hope to find the right ending.

Breathing space

Tanya V 29 August 2022

Got a job, lost that job, moved house, moved to a new region, completed a couple of courses, currently doing another course to learn a new skill, learned to use a chainsaw, and still writing my novel.

All of these things and more have taken my attention away from writing the journal of my novel. A new chapter has begun in my own life which caused me to loose track of my writing routine, but now, back to it!

The final chapter of the 2nd draft is three quarters done. There will be some polishing off when all of the words are written, even so, I am tantalisingly close to moving onto the 3rd draft. Writing this last chapter is challenging. I’m very conscious of it being the end of the tale that I am telling, and determined to write the ending that the story deserves. The novel’s themes of self discovery, self empowerment, self knowledge, and all of the other ‘selfisms’ come to a resolution as such, but there is no ending to personal evolution. My dilemma in writing the ending then has become to do justice to the story and protagonist without making a blah ending that leaves people exasperatedly asking ‘Is that it?’, or a vague, cryptic ode to life.

In the first draft I wrote an ending that has set me up to write the ending that I want but it is lacking in a way that I can’t quite pinpoint. Time, space and writing will bring the ending needed onto the page, so I’m taking my time, and writing with gaps on the page that I’ll revisit and flesh out.

The end is near, I can feel it, I have faith that it will come to me fully formed if I give it my attention but also some breathing space.