Book Two is finished … well, the first draft is done

This is only the beginning, though.

• I’ve got the first edit to do – go through reading for continuity and flow.
• Rewrite as needed from that edit
• Then I’ll do a dialogue edit to make sure all the dialogue sounds good and matches the characters
• More rewriting as needed
• Then there’s the (possibly first) professional edit to see what I need to fix
• Then there may be yet another rewrite … maybe even several

Then, and only then, will I send it to my agent to see what she thinks. It’s not a short process.

How many edits do you go through before you publish?

Draft #2 is off to the editor for the last check-up before I start on the query letters. This is someone who’s never read anything by me before, so it should be illuminating to get her take on the book.

Getting started on Book 2 in November for NaNoWriMo. The working title is Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid: The Hawaiian Affair. That’ll change as soon as I think of something better — it’s too much like a Sherlock Holmes title (or something from Man From U.N.C.L.E.). The lads will be involved in treaties between the U.S. and the Republic of Hawai’i … not gonna give you any more hints!

I’m spending the next 10 days doing research, then it’s 1667 words a day for the entire month. By Christmas, I’ll have half the book finished!

When I decided to write a novel about Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid, I had to come up with a convincing plot. Here are some of the steps I took in planning for that novel.

 

1. The main idea. I knew that I wanted to show off their outlaw skills, and to use those same skills in solving the mystery. Since I’d already decided to show them robbing a train, I had to come up with a scenario where they’d need to use the same sort of set-up. I wanted their first case to be relatively easy for them, with the main focus being the formation of the Kye-Chance-Stone team. I had several possible plots in mind, from stealing back some sort of vital document to kidnapping a criminal to return him to justice. I settled on a rather tame case, with a runaway heiress, as a suitable first attempt.
2. Plotting. Once I had my basic idea, I did a rough outline to see what I wanted to happen over the course of the story, At this point, I didn’t put in many specifics, just tried to get the lads from their meeting with Stone to the conclusion of the case.
3. The first draft. My first draft is always more like free-writing. I just sit down and let the words flow. Some of it is going to be crap and have to be cut, but I get the basic ideas down before I worry about editing.
4. Edits. Once I had a complete manuscript, I had to worry about editing. Since this is my first novel, I thought it would be worth the money to use a professional editor, and I think that was the right decision. She pointed out several spots that just weren’t working out, and made a few really good suggestions on how to fix them.
5. The second draft. While I waited for the editor to read and comment, I worked on the first draft, looking for things like repeated phrases, “movie lines” (head nods and other such movements more common on a script than in a novel), and slow spots. I tried to ramp up the tension and conflict, especially between the main three characters.
6. The third draft. That’s the one I’m working on now. Following some of the editor’s suggestions, I’ve dropped the sub-plot I had in the first two drafts, which I admit was more boring than the main case. I’m adding several chapters from the point of view of their friend Emily Sharp. I’ve also thought of a few complications that I hadn’t imagined at first, things to further increase tension in the slower middle part of the book.

 

I’ll keep you posted on my progress as I work on what I hope will be the final draft of the novel. What are your experiences? How many edits do you usually run through before you really feel the book is ready?