I had this idea I could whip through creating the second draft of my book. I’ve got a month. The first draft is pretty good. No problem. I can do this.
Hmmmm.
I am revising my idea of revising. Like, I maybe should expect that this second draft will take me as long as writing the first draft. The first three weeks of April have shown me this.
I admit it. I am a virgin when it comes to second drafts. I mean, I was a virgin. Can’t claim, and blame, that any longer.
I am in the messy midst of second draft, and I am enjoying it. A different process than first draft. I am pickier. Rather than ‘let’s get this down’, it is ‘let’s get this right.’ I am playing with words in a different way. I am studying them, drop by drop, rather than pouring out a whole bucketful of water onto the page and moving quickly to the next page to pour another bucketful.
First draft was falling in love with a crowd. Second draft is loving the individual beauty of a word, phrase, sentence, and hearing how they link and don’t link to those beside them. Second draft is choosing the particular beauty I want my book to be, and matching all to this.
I still love the parts that don’t link up, that don’t match this single beauty. I see their different beauty, and know they will fit somewhere else, some other time. I put them aside.
I’ve had to adjust my word goal for Camp Nanowrimo. Downwards. Make it smaller. Doable. That is alright. I am learning a new writing process, my revision process, and this is exciting.
So, a toast. Raise your coffee mugs, tea cups, wineglasses, and all. Here’s to a longer revision process. Here’s to getting it right, and to particular beauty. Here’s to second drafts and being a writer.
________________________
Mentioned in this post:
Camp Nanowrimo http://campnanowrimo.org
