After the excitement of finishing your first draft, and the tedium of making all the fixes and changes you knew you had to do, how do you know when you are really done and the manuscript is ready to send out, or that you need to polish it some more? The answer to this is tricky. On the one hand, you definitely don’t want to send your baby off to be read by agents before it’s done. You want to give it every opportunity to succeed. On the other hand,…read more
•Pick someone you trust, but not necessarily someone you know well. Sometimes a comparative stranger can be more helpful than a close friend. •Pick someone who regularly reads the kind of book you’ve written (i.e., memoir, chick lit, mystery, history, etc.) •Pick someone who actively engages their own creativity. It doesn’t have to be a fellow writer, it could be a musician or even a scientist, but if they use their own creativity, they are less likely to feel jealous of your ability to manifest a complete piece of creative…read more
From my Newsletter, Late Spring 2010 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have worked on many books. I should say I have worked on many ideas that became manuscripts that became books. I know from all this experience that the closer you get to the end, it seems, the more there is you realize has to be done. This can be very frustrating! You think you have a finished manuscript that just needs a couple of things added, or a few facts checked, and it will take a week to get it done. Three…read more
From my Newsletter, Spring 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A student who finished her first draft (yeah!) asked me, How should I approach doing the edit? If you’ve taken my and others’ advice and let yourself just write out the first draft to the end, there are a bunch of things you have to look at in the edit which will produce the second draft. First, structural things. Are there places you know things need to change? What things do you know now that you’ve finished the draft that you didn’t know in…read more
From my Newsletter, Winter 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A student sent me an email. She’d been working on her manuscript a long time, and I’d asked her if she’d gotten it done. She said she was surprised that it was almost done but there were more things than she thought involved in finishing. I told her, well there are always stages to “doneness,” and it helps to realize that there are at least seven completion points. She immediately asked, oh, can you tell me what they all are? This is my answer….read more
From my Newsletter, December 2006. This year I had the opportunity to work with two magnificent writers, helping them complete their manuscripts. One was writing fiction, one non-fiction. I was amazed to observe that the necessity for both was the same: to let go of their own attachment to the writing or the stories in order to serve the needs of the book. I watched one (the non-fiction writer) letting go of large swaths of good material to focus on the real story. I watched the other (the fiction writer)…read more