Three Things I’ve Learned (So far)

There are three things I’ve learned so far in this endeavor that I think are really important.  Everyone writes differently so you may disagree, but for my money those things are:

Get Feedback

Feedback from an early draft (I never show the first but I’ll let people read the second) will benefit the book tremendously, as long as the feedback is good.  I don’t mean that the feedback has to be all positive, but if you can find someone willing to do it who is smart, who reads, who you trust to give constructive criticism, and who is not afraid to speak their mind, then I don’t think you can go wrong.  Listen to what they say.  Even though your book is really close to you resist the impulse to defend your work and instead just absorb what you’re hearing.  You don’t have to follow every suggestion but I think learning to listen to them is key.

Don’t get overly attached to anything you’ve written

No matter how cool it played out in your mind it might just not work for your readers and being stubborn about it isn’t going to help the story as a whole.  Be prepared to rework or even replace your favorite scene in the book.  I’m finding that sometimes a bit may not work in one story but then find a home later on in a different one.

Don’t forget to breathe

Stepping away from a project then coming back to it later helps a lot, at least for me.  I don’t let myself do this in mid-draft unless I find I’m just pushing food around my plate but even then I don’t do it long.  After say a second draft, though, it really pays off for me to walk away and work on something else for a while.  When I come back to it, as I will shortly with APPLE, I find I’ve got totally renewed energy and a ton of fresh new ideas for it to make it better.  That combined with the feedback should spell a productive third draft.