Writing fiction is such an interesting exercise–one that is very familiar to other writers, but also unique to each individual. After many years, styles, and genre, I’ve settled into a basic strategy the works for me. First comes all the prep work. Then I put that away and write the first daft straight through, warts and all. Next comes a lot of note-taking–and since I tend toward SF/F, it also means restoring the internal consistency of the universe I’ve creating. Step four is a page-one rewrite of the tome.
It is that fourth stage I’m now in with the current effort, and it’s one that I feel is very important. I’ve found that a page-one rewrite (using the notes I took) gives me a chance to infuse the characters with the life I discovered toward the end of the first draft. Now instead of theoretical characters being penned from notes and outlines, I have “real” people whose character and emotions are in my head no less than if I’d actually met them and spent time with them–which I have, of course…several months, in fact.
It’s only through the page-one rewrite that I feel this process gets an honest effort. In-place editing is less fluid, and character traits can seem as if they were added in because the writer simply needed to add them in at a certain point. By taking the time to type the entire text again, the writer gets a second chance to create the tale we saw in our heads the first time, but were too inexperienced in our universe to express properly.
This is probably the part of the process I enjoy the most. I don’t have to be creating every last detail for the first time. Sure, there’s still a lot of creative work to do, but it’s built on a foundation that is already there. It’s like writing fanfic–putting established characters into a familiar universe, and the writer only having to be concerned with the story and craft. The trick here is that the usurped universe is one of your own creation, not someone else’s. This isn’t to say that it isn’t tedious. Of course it is. Typing out a 100,000-word long piece of anything 2,000 words at a time is a bit of work.
I think one of the biggest joys in writing, as well as one of the most terrifying moments, will come at the end of this major rewrite…letting others read it. No one but me reads my first drafts. They tend to be pretty bad–especially the first several chapters when I’m still getting my sea-legs. Much of that gets fixed in this big rewrite. If all goes well, this will essentially be the final product after mucho polishing…again, if all goes well. The readers dictate the next step. Are there problems with the story that make sense inside my crazed writer’s head that make no sense to your average reader? Or, more basically, will they like the story?
That is what this rewrite is all about…trying to get the story so that others will be willing to read it. Honestly, in the first draft and the rewrite, I’m not concerned with that. What does concern me is the question of whether I want to read it. Of course, unlike a lot of people, I know that I’ll be reading it dozens of times (I’ve already gone through it three or four times already), good or bad. If, at the end of the process, I can pick up the story, read it, and still enjoy it…well, that’s all I can really expect. The rest is out of my hands.
