Tuesday 7th July 2020

Progress continues to go well on this draft.

I’m not going to lie there’s still a feeling that I’m somehow rushing it, that I’m not going deep enough on the changes.

But then I tell myself I have a plan of what needs to be done and I need to stick to that.

Definitely putting that work up front has helped a lot.  I’m not second guessing myself as I can just refer to the discussion document and not get lost in my own thoughts.

It’s always bothered me that my redrafting work is a lot, lot slower than my first drafts and something I’ve wanted to improve.  This feels like the right pace.  Of course, I’d like it to be faster and I suspect once I’ve found the process that works for me I can optimise it.

The answer, just like how I sped up my first draft writing, is to front load it.  By taking the time to prepare, it makes the actual work a lot, lot faster.  For first drafts this manifests itself in writing outlines, for redrafts, it’s in creating the discussion document.

There’s then work to take that outline or discussion document and breaking it down into a plan to write or edit.  But that’s where Scrivener’s corkboard has been so helpful.  I can take that outline or discussion document and lay it out on the corkboard so to break down into bite-sized tasks assigned to chapters.

I’ve also used Scrivener’s features to make notes to myself.  Weirdly, in being more organised, I’ve become more messy.  Having cards on my corkboard that serve no purpose other than to denote stages of character arcs has proved really useful.

I’ve never been so organised, and my corkboard has never been so messy.

Every book is different – indeed I’d go so far as to say that every draft is different – so it’s maybe too early to claim this new process is a success.  I’ll need to use it a few more times.  And sure there’s likely to be some refinement along the way as I encounter new situations and challenges.

But, for now, I’m happy with how it’s going.  It’s going to get more difficult as I approach chapters that need more complex work, but even if this process speeds up those chapters that need a light touch, it’ll mean I can give those difficult chapters more focus.

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