Mechanics

I read a DFW interview where he stated he "was a five draft man." When writing, he wrote five drafts before he sent it to his editor, revising and polishing the first two in his handwritten notebooks, then the others typed or processsed so he could get a feel of how they appeared in print. This seems like good advice, for non-certified writers like myself, trying to learn the craft by reading and paying attention to the considerate advice from published authors.

I'm printing the 242 pages of Rooster today, so I can go through line-by-line and edit the work down another twenty pages. I would say this is the fourth draft I've actually completed and printed. The other three were written in third-person POV, and somehow got sidetracked into some pseudo-literary bullshite that bogged the story down. I couldn't decide if I was telling Rooster's story or my own, so I told both, to disasterous effect. Still, making the Top 100 in the Amazon.com Breakout Novel contest was tremendously encouraging, and the scathing review by a rep from Publishers Weekly (posted here at BL and in the archives) was direct and fairly accurate and a much-needed kick in the pants. It's amazing how much I learn from negative feedback, after the indignation wears off and I make an effort to see how someone could say something so awful.

I need draft five completed by summers end. I am very close. And I have to do the same for my short story collection, Believable Lies, and have that done by mid-October. But that's mostly cutting and pasting and re-reading. Having two complete manuscripts in hand for the writers conference at Hutchinson Island in October seems like a good plan. These are the mechanics I'm using these days. Or is it mechanix? You get the idea.