The Next Draft
“Go back through. Add it, the big plot detail and the new character it needs; web it through and earn it in each line, and make the changes and the textural touches necessary to bring it about rightly, justly and convincingly. Take the pains. Build it strong.”
–Richard Bausch (from a Facebook Status Update dated Dec 3, 2011.)
I’m 50 000-odd words into a first draft of a novel. I’m one or two scenes away from the end, and only now do I see what changes need to be made. It took me almost 200 pages to figure out exactly what my main character was yearning for, and why, and how knowing this solves all of the problems that were weighing on me. It is a testament to my growing ability just to do the work (in the words of Richard Bausch, whom I was lucky enough to have as a mentor this past summer), that the prospect of redoing it all from the beginning is not exhausting but exhilerating.
