In this episode we cover: 

• Top tips and tricks to get through your draft
• Mistakes to avoid
• Mindset barriers for first drafts
• What to do when you get stuck

This week’s question is: who would you like to see on the show or what topics would you like covered?

Recommendation of the week is: Gallant by V.E. Schwab

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Find out more about Donna at:

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Romance Author Website

Rebel of the Week is: Jackson Hollingsworth

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or instagram me @sachablackauthor

3 new patrons this week, welcome and thank you to Darren Blake, Rebecca Adams and Kimberly Grymes. A big thank you to my existing patrons as well. If you’d like to support the show, and get early access to all the episodes as well as bonus content you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

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The post 136 How to Write a Scrappy First Draft with Donna Barker appeared first on Sacha Black.

***

Editing is a bitch. I’ve written about the differences between editing and revising before. But my dear friend Ali recently taught me one of the best, most practically useful lessons I’ve ever learnedd when it comes to editing.

See for a long time, I wrote linearly and then when I finished, went back to the start and edited.

That’s good. But no matter how many times I did it, I still found a shit-tillion mistakes. Which resulted in a sort of crazed, goggle-eyed, fuzzy haired – I’m going to commit arson on my manuscript – type look. It wasn’t pretty, my hairs curly enough thanks.

So, I listened to Ali and started tweaking the method to suit me. I’m going to share this editing trick with you, and hopefully, it will help you to clean up your scripts too.

The fundamental problem with editing is that we know our stories. We know our stories as well as we know how to breathe. It’s in-our-blood fundamental. Which means, we’re not subjective.

Getting any kind of objectivity over your manuscript is like trying to use your dominant hand, to cut off your dominant hand! It’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable, and quite frankly, fucking painful.

There are a gazillion suggestions of how you can get objectivity:

• Take time away from your script
• Put your manuscript in a different font
• Print it out
• Read it out loud 

All great tips. All tips I’ve used with varying success. But I was still making one fundamental error. I was still reading my manuscript in a logical, front to back order.

FAIL of capital proportions.

But Ali said: read backwards. Now I needed a bit more meat to that bone. If I actually read word for word backwards, I wouldn’t be able to edit a thing. It would read like turd. So here’s what I did.

• Started with chapter one like normal
• But started at the END of the chapter
• I read each individual paragraph forward in the normal way. But I started from the first word of the last paragraph in that chapter
• So the first thing I read is the last paragraph of a chapter
• Then I read the penultimate paragraph
• Then the paragraph above that 
• I worked backwards till I reached the first paragraph of my chapter

Why does this work?

You’re forced not to read the story. You can’t. Because the story isn’t being played out for you any more. It’s disjointed, out of order, nonsensical and completely new to you.

You’re not able to lose yourself in your story, because what you’re reading isn’t a story any more. It’s just paragraphs of words.

Voila, you have objectivity.

I was skeptical at first, I didn’t see how I could pick up on any mistakes when I wasn’t reading ‘the story’ how could I get a feel for flow or pace or anything for that matter?

Boy did I have to eat some extra sugar coated humble pie.

Never, and I do mean never, have I been so effective at picking up my own mistakes. It was like the fucking holy grail itself landed on my lap and let me guzzle super charged editing juice from its glorious cup. I mean, just look at the state of those pages. AND I ACTUALLY THOUGHT MY MANUSCRIPT WAS OKAY BEFORE! Wrong.

Wrong.Wrong. Wrong. Fucking Wrong.

You don’t have to print the pages off like I did, honestly, hand editing has taken me an inordinate amount of time. But much to my frustration, that’s just what works for me. I changed the font, read backwards and annotated. I have used enough sticky posts to wall paper the Earth’s crust, but that’s enabled me to write myself notes and questions where I’ve found plot holes, consistency issues, mistakes or character questions.

Here’s a non exhaustive list of the kinds of mistakes this method has enabled me to pick up despite not reading the story in a logical order:

• Characterisation problems
• Character consistency 
• Plot holes
• Timeline errors
• Punctuation and grammar faults like: commas, apostrophes, capital letters, missed words, repeated words
• Over use of identical metaphors and similes 
• Over/under exposition
• Over/under foreshadowing
• Sentence flow and pace
• Word order and sentence structure

Give it a go. Let me know how you find it and whether it works for you too. What editing tricks have you got up your sleeves? What’s the best trick anyone ever taught you? Let me know in the comments.

If you liked this editing tip, why not sign up to get even more juicy writing tips, straight to your mailbox?

The post The Best Editing Trick I Ever Learnt appeared first on Sacha Black.

But how do I cope in the mean time? I mean WHAT DO I DO NOW? I have spent the last year of my life pouring my soul into 400 pages of what is probably utter drivel. I have bled, cried and got finger blisters over this manuscript. So now….What am I meant to do now? It’s all over. The hard copy of the manuscript is sitting in the corner of my livingroom collecting dust whilst I try and be a good girl and not touch it…. LET ME EDIT, LET ME EDIT, LET ME EDIT.

Ok. Fine. I’ll behave. I guess I am not the sort of person who is able to… you know… rest, relax… do anything other than burn the candle at both ends and in the middle. So here, are my top tips for preventing insanity while you rest your manuscript.1. Bask in the glory of finishing your manuscript.

That’s right, sun your self people. Let the radiant heat of words typed at speed flow over you. You smashed it. I mean hello…? You just finished an ENORMOUS task. It’s a colossal achievement. Doesn’t matter if it’s your first book or your one hundred and first book. You did it. You just succeeded at a seriously difficult job. Too often we don’t celebrate. We’re not kind to ourselves and we don’t relish the fact we have smashed whatever task it is we have done. We hurry off to the next book, or competition entry or whatever else.

No. Stop that. Take note. Crack open the champers, or prosecco or dairy milk… you deserve it, you’re AWESOME.

2. Chillax

It’s an obvious one, and utterly impossible for me. I have to force relaxation on myself, usually by shutting myself in a dark cinema where I’m not allowed to do anything other than sit and quietly watch the film. Mrs. Black would rather visit a spa…

Whether it’s vegetating in front of a boxset or beasting yourself in the gym, you need to rest your mind. Especially if you want to get the best out of it when you start to edit.

3. Speak to your family and friends, be social (haha)

God I am terrible for this. I never do anything unless I am doing it 110%. Which means I’m selfish an horrible and throw myself into the world I am creating at that time. So Mrs. Black, gets a little neglected. Now is the time for me to get on my hands and needs and grovel…

It’s time to live life, take her to the theatre or that museum she’s been hanging on about, or just have a snuggle on the sofa in front of a film rather than cuddling my laptop all night. Why not call your friends, go for a pint, go clubbing or just catch up over dinner.

4. Start new projects

There’s lots of things that come under this:

Maybe you have always wanted to do a blog series. Or perhaps you have been wanting to enter some competitions. Maybe you want to write some short stories for a magazine. What about getting some cover art designed for your book. Even if you get traditionally published it’s nice to have the cover you want, besides you can use it to promote your book sooner rather than later. Or what about giving back, maybe you could beta read for someone else.

Whatever it is now is the time to start that new writing project. You need to rest your manuscript for a while, so you may as well try and complete some of those side projects you’ve been putting off.

5. Start book two

Are you writing a series? A trilogy? Or perhaps you have another completely different book you have been wanting to write. Nows the time. If you are resting your primary manuscript then the time is right to throw yourself into something completely new. If you are writing a series, then why not start the next one? It means the gap between publishing the first and second will be significantly shorter. If you don’t want to fill your head too much with a new book then why not just outline it? Or do some character prep for new characters. Or do some research and build a list of competitions to enter.

6. Life admin

Are there ever things you desperately need to do and never find time? Maybe its put that shelf up, or visit the post office, maybe you need to submit meter readings, go through that alarmingly large pile of post, or that draw where you shove everything you want to deal with later, or perhaps you’ve been meaning to buy a present for a friends new born… that’s now 6 months old!

I call this life admin. Those things that aren’t really urgent, but do need to be done. I tend to leave it until there’s so many things I need to do they clog my head and I have no choice. This is the perfect opportunity.

7. Read

As well as being a full time worker and a mum, I write and do the occasional set of nails for people, that’s all besides the upkeep of the house, trying to exercise when I can, trying to keep up with everyones blog posts and maintaining some kind of social life.

Reading, despite being one of my favourite past times gets put to the bottom of the list in favour of time spent writing. When I am mid flow on a manuscript instead of reading a few chapters a night I tend to only have time to read a few pages. I am painfully slow, so much so its annoying. So now is the time I focus on catching up on all those books I’ve been meaning to read…and leaving reviews too.

8. Do something different

This is everything else. Exercise is important, I tend to get a bit chunky when I write, giving time to the computer rather than the workout dvd. But why not try something different, take up rock climbing, or hill walking or go karting.

go travelling, or canoeing, or museum visiting. Whatever you do, get out the house, leave the laptop behind and live, before you know it it will be time to get your head back down behind the screen.

What are your top suggestions for me, whilst I rest my manuscript? What do you do? Let me know in the comments below.

The post 8 Top Tips To Prevent Insanity When Resting Your Manuscript! appeared first on Sacha Black.

At 1:04am, on the 20th of August, after exactly 292 days or 41 weeks and 5 days of writing my first draft of my novel, I wrote those two long awaited words… ‘The End’.

I was in bed, in the dark, laptop on my knees, with my sleeping beauty of a wife next to me. I stared at the screen, the cursor still blinking… and the first word that came into my mind was, “oh.” I stared around our darkened room and my gaze fell upon my wife. I searched for signs she was stirring… I had just finished my novel, of course she would just wake up… wouldn’t she? This was a momentous occasion… But her light sleepy snuffles continued. I couldn’t wake her.

I turned back to the screen. The cursor was still blinking. I read the two words in the middle of my screen. My eyes widened, my mouth fell slack… I really did finish? I wasn’t hallucinating or delirious like I had been many a time during this process…?

Nope. I really did finish. So what did I learn?

ONE – However hard you think it’s going to be, it will be harder.

I knew before I started that writing a novel would be hard. If not for the quantity of words then for the shear monstrosity of content and information you have to manage and keep consistent. But knowing that and then actually writing a novel are two different things. It was so much harder than I expected. Especially when I was so invested in it. You are creating an entire world from scratch, the detail is insane.

TWO – However long you think it will take to write, it will take longer.

I don’t recall how long I thought it would take, less than a year, and ok, I hit that (just). But I remember frequently setting targets for this chapter or that section and missing them repeatedly. I fell short of goals and deadlines and never got anything done on time. Life has a habit of getting in the way particularly when you think it won’t. In fact, especially when you think it won’t.

THREE – First drafts are shit.

This was THE novel, the one I always wanted to write. It means the world to me. Which also means, I wanted perfection on draft one. That, is an impossibility. I put an awful lot of pressure on myself to have the perfect characters, the correct timeline, settings detail, all of it. I ended up blocking myself to the point I couldn’t write for a couple of months. Perfection comes through editing. Editing is a necessity not failure. The minute I accepted that the minute I unblocked myself and was able to free write, my pace picked up and I kept going.

FOUR – Routine is a necessary evil.

It’s one of those phrases used all the time. Writers need routine. But it wasn’t until I started trying to write this novel at pace that I really appreciated how necessary routine is. I write everyday or almost everyday. The simple act of doing that has improved my writing tenfold. Whether I write a blog post or a piece of flash fiction, it all helps. In this instance practice really does make perfect.

FIVE – Editing maps are gold dust.

I use an editing map, if you don’t know what that is you can read more in my post 8 steps to discover your perfect writing process. It’s a map of each chapter. I create it before I start (or in this case part way through) and as I write, in order not to stop or have to go back and edit to perfection (which would mean I never got to the end) I write notes in an editing map. I have pages of edits already listed under the correct chapter ready for me to take a red pen to my draft. I cannot tell you how helpful this is – makes me feel like I can hit the editing road at a run.

SIX – Chapter summaries should be written as you go.

My memories good. I can recall several digits of numbers that flash up in front of me, I can cram for exams and remember factual education things with ease. What I can’t do is remember 90,000 words of detail. I am really kicking myself for not having done this consistently, but what I should have done, and will do when I write book two, is write a summary of each chapter as I finish them. I now have to do this as I edit, which means I can’t write a blurb or a synopsis until I have read the darn manuscript.

SEVEN – Writing is hard on relationships

If you are single then this probably doesn’t apply. But if you have a partner or family or actually friends! then writing is hard on your relationships. I got very sucked into my novel. It took up a serious amount of brain space and time, which means there is less left for your partner. Novels don’t get written over night. This one took 292 days, that’s almost a year. Granted, I know more about my process and how to write now and therefore next time it would be quicker. But writing almost 100,000 words doesn’t happen quickly. And it’s all too easy to neglect those closest to you.

EIGHT – Change your mind – kill your babies.

I learnt I am pretty indecisive. There are a good few chapters in the middle where the storyline will need to be made consistent because I changed my mind repeatedly about everything. In the end I made a decision to cut two characters completely. It worked. I wrote on and got the storyline straight.

NINE – Just keep writing, no one else is going to write it for you.

Sounds ridiculous, but its true. I gave up twice on this novel. But I had to pick it back up because no one else was going to finish it for me. I got blocked, frustrated, irritated and deluded with it. But I kept putting one word after the other, and eventually they turned into sentences and paragraphs and apparently a novel! (Still in shock!). This is twofold – I didn’t just learn that I needed to keep going, but keep going in times of block too. If I got stuck on a part of a chapter, or an entire chapter, I just kept going. Skipped the bit I couldn’t do and wrote something else. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but it did for me. It meant I carried on, got words on the page, and most of the time, I found my solution in writing something later in the story. Don’t let block stop your progress, just write something else.

Now I have to edit. So my question to you is:

What is the best advice you could give me for editing?What’s your top tip?

Let me know in the comments below.

The post Nine Secrets to Successfully Completing That Elusive First Draft appeared first on Sacha Black.