Over at DeepGenre, Edelman has posted a second article discussing the way, or at least, his way to write a novel. If you missed the first part, it’s here. It involved the basic steps…such as coming up with an idea for a novel in the first place and actually committing yourself to writing it. Without those steps, it’d be pretty hard to write a novel at all, don’t you think?
This second article focuses on what to do once you’ve actually got a draft in hand. Do you send it off to the publisher straight away? If you do, you’re either brilliant or ignorant, because very few people can create a perfect first draft without a lot of revision, feedback and editing.
It helps to have some folks to look over your work and critique it…either a writer’s group, or some beta readers, whatever you want to call them. But the real work comes in listening to these people and implementing what they suggest, or deciding not to, without your literary pride getting in the way. He also suggest printing out your entire novel at one point and editing on paper using colored pens and such. This is a toughie for me, but I do agree about his outlining habits. Having a structure set up for the story helps me stay focused.
Any of these suggestions ones you feel you need to work on, or wouldn’t work for you?
Don’t forget to check out Edelman’s website, and the developments for his sequel to Infoquake, Multireal, which is looking pretty spiffy.
I see that smile.