Second Draft: relax and write

Dorlana Vann ♦ August 15, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

After printing, reading, and making notes, I’m officially on my second draft of my contemporary romance. I’m not going to worry so much with grammar and line-edits yet – that’s next draft –  but below are some of the things I found I need to fix.

Characterization – This is the biggy. I have backgrounds to fill-in, descriptions to match up, and personalities to tighten.

Plot Holes – There is this one, in the back of my mind, that I knew was there the entire time I wrote the first draft, but now I have to face it. At least I can see this one staring me in the face. As I work on this second draft, I have to pay special attention, and not let my mind say, “Oh, I can deal with that later,” or worse, miss it altogether.

Repetitiveness – Not with words, (I love the word “just” for some reason)  I’ll deal with that next draft too – what I’m talking about here are phrases and jesters/actions. In one of my previous books, I had “She couldn’t help but …” that was pointed out as overused. So that will be one I  look for.

Minor details – I have place holders all over the place where I need to go fill in the blanks like, restaurant names, minor character names, types of cars, even descriptions – the place holder being: describe here.

Sentence Fun – My favorite thing to do, regarding writing a novel, is playing with sentences and/or paragraphs: rearranging, organizing, cutting, rewording, finding that perfect word, finding that “yes, that’s it!” It is the reason I go through the agony of the first draft – lol. I no longer have that feeling like I need to be somewhere else (You know, like writing the next chapter) I can stay with that sentence as long as I want without being afraid I’ll forget the rest of the story that’s in my head.  Second draft is relax and write time.

Love and Laughter,

Dorlana