Putting in the hard work

As it's back to work time in the UK today this seemed to be a good time to talk about the importance of hard work as a writer.

Over thirty years of writing, my process has been honed to one I know works.  The first stage is the chapter plan.  For Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Song these plans are around 21 pages long, and outline what happens in each chapter, whose viewpoint that chapter is in (important when you have five viewpoints!), and where the action takes place.  The chapter plan allows me to see where cliffhangers can go, and where to break the narrative for dramatic tension.  I find the chapter plan hard work.  I've just finished the plan for the third book in the series, Panthera : Death Plain, and it took me a lot longer than I expected.

But once that chapter plan is done then I can start playing.  The actual creative writing is a joy to me, more like play and exploration than hard work.  And with the chapter plan already done I know what's coming next and have the confidence that I won't lose my way.  I can relax into the play of creation.

But producing the first draft is the easy bit, then the work of editing starts.  This isn't as joyful a process as the creating, but it's every bit as essential.  Editing is what makes the difference between an amateur and professional work.  

My first edit is to read the whole manuscript through on paper, making alterations and corrections as I go.  Then I type up these corrections and read through the altered manuscript again, probably making more corrections.  After four or five goes, I get the text as I want it.

When I've got what I think is the final version I then sit down with the whole book and read it out aloud, in as big chunks as my voice can manage each time.  Even after several edits, I'll still pick things up here, repeated words that slip through until they're read out loud.

Yes, the process is hard work, but I'm working at something I love, and I have the satisfaction of knowing when the book goes out into the world that it has been polished and honed to the best it can be at that time.