Draft five

On another milestone

Photo by Ryan Johns on Unsplash

Draft Five has been the strangest one so far.

I had my first feedback from a reader who said, “I enjoyed it — a real page turner.” And added a few comments that were helpful too.

So I thought it was going to be a “tidy things up” draft.

Instead, it turned out to be the draft where I had to slow right down and admit that some of what I had written simply wasn’t true enough yet.

Not factually untrue. Emotionally untrue.

When I read the manuscript back, I could suddenly see the places where I was trying too hard. Patches of purple prose. Scenes that stayed too long after they had done their job. Moments where I was over-explaining because I didn’t quite trust the reader to get there on their own.

Sometimes I was skating over what a character was really feeling because it was easier to summarise it and move on. Sometimes a scene had become too procedural — this happened, then this happened, then this happened — without enough attention to what it felt like to be inside it.

Draft Five has mostly been about asking much harder questions.

What is this scene really about?

What is the character actually feeling here?

Have I earned this line?

Can I take three sentences out and make it stronger?

Am I leaving the scene because the scene is finished — or because I want to avoid something difficult?

They say cut your darlings and mine were littered on the floor by the end. Most went easily, but some were painful to cut. Scenes I’d written at the start, and felt proud of them. ut you have to be brutal - if something doesn’t earn its place — out it goes.

I think this has probably been the hardest draft so far, but also the one that has made the book feel most alive.

And now, finally, I think I can draw a line under it.

Draft Six - find out how I’m getting on here

My Novel Year

I’m a novelist and somatic life coach, working with writers, creatives, and anyone wanting to bring more creativity into their lives.

If you’d like to follow my progress through My Novel Year – as I work on Kezzia, my dual-timeline novel set between Victorian Britain and present-day Suffolk – please subscribe.