Manuscript Mania

In July 2008 I took the plunge. I began my journey by writing a piece about life in an orphan asylum in the mid-1900s in the American Heartland. I knew such an existence was bleak for the children. This made me wonder what happened to their energy. Did the building absorb their sadness? By the time I finished the manuscript it didn't resemble the original story line in the slightest.
Following my "what if" question I jotted a few pages of notes. What story did I want to tell? Who would narrate?
Next, I filled in the spaces with more What Ifs. It became clear I needed to research technical aspects about which I had no knowledge, specifically electricity and certain medical conditions. This led me to make "meatier" notes.
After research the hard part was sitting down in front of the computer and getting started. Before the first word appeared on the screen I reminded myself I was writing for ME and I wasn't even going to pay attention to my noisy inner critic. Writing lasted 67 days, including additional research. At some point I realized the story was telling itself. Some days I was lucky to produce two paragraphs. Others I didn't stop writing until late into the night. Amazingly, I was often exhausted at the end of the day, but it was a wonderful exhaustion.
After producing the first very rough draft I set it aside for two weeks to settle. The next draft was rewritten entirely at the computer. This draft was also set aside to marinate. For the next revision I printed a hard copy and went to work with a red pen before I sat back to make revisions. Then I made my first big mistake. I sent a query off to an agent. I was so excited to have completed my first novel I submitted it before it was ready. Rejection was swift and impersonal but not unexpected. This time I let the work sit for a couple of months while I pursued other story lines. Since the first of the year I've nearly completed the "final" rewrite. The biggest change in this edit was to slash words. I've probably cut the equivalent of two chapters during this rewrite, a move I hope solidifies the story and also makes it more marketable. The next goal for my book-to-be is to complete this process in the next 10 days afterwhich I'll give it one more red pen treatment.
It's clear the creative process can turn into a never ending story in its own right. Writers are notoriously fickle and change can be good during the process. But making grammatical and spelling changes and editing to make it concise are different than stringing the process out forever.
- bethany moran