{"id":158,"date":"2014-02-12T11:34:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T16:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/?p=158"},"modified":"2014-02-12T11:34:48","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T16:34:48","slug":"four-drafts-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/?p=158","title":{"rendered":"Four Drafts and Counting&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.creative-cache.biz\/donnadrewsawyer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/edited-manuscript-istock_000008245569xsmall.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-163\" alt=\"Edited Manuscript - iStock_000008245569XSmall\" src=\"http:\/\/www.creative-cache.biz\/donnadrewsawyer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/edited-manuscript-istock_000008245569xsmall.jpg?w=200\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/edited-manuscript-istock_000008245569xsmall.jpg 283w, https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/edited-manuscript-istock_000008245569xsmall-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>I am finalizing my fourth draft of my novel, Provenance. The first draft, of which I was extremely proud and actually sent out to agents, was atrocious. I wrote the second draft after a kind and knowledgeable literary agent gave me feedback on my first draft (thank you Miriam). I hired a developmental editor to read and comment on the second draft and while it was better I had more work to do.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 8pt;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\">The third draft was a slavish concession to every comment the developmental editor made on the second manuscript, including to turn my too-long novel into two novels. I tried, but the separation did not feel right for me or my characters. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 8pt;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\">I am currently working on the fourth draft. Trusting my writer instincts, I am putting the book back together with a much leaner profile. The exercise of having torn the tome asunder has actually made the book better. <\/span><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\">In addition to working on my manuscript I have faithfully attended my writers group and I\u2019ve taken writing classes with authors like Barbara Esstman and Con Lehane, to better hone my craft. I have read more than 70 books \u2013 some on the craft of writing, some fiction, all an education and thank goodness for Goodreads otherwise I would have lost track by now. At four drafts and counting, I\u2019m a better writer, writing a better book. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:9pt 0;line-height:16.5pt;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\">According to author Louis Sachar, I have two more drafts to go. In<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/galleycat\/louis-sachar-always-be-willing-to-rewrite_b82582\"> a recent talk at the 92Y <\/a>in New York that was reported in GalleyCat,\u00a0Sachar said that an author must <\/span><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\">\u201calways be willing to rewrite.\u201d He shared that each of his books typically required him to write six drafts \u2013 three or four for plot and character development and in the last two drafts he adds the artistry. It is nice to know that I am not unique in realm of revision.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><span style=\"font-family:'Arial', 'sans-serif';\">After craft comes art, one draft at a time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am finalizing my fourth draft of my novel, Provenance. The first draft, of which I was extremely proud and actually sent out to agents, was atrocious. I wrote the second draft after a kind and knowledgeable literary agent gave me feedback on my first draft (thank you Miriam). I hired a developmental editor to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13,26],"tags":[35,42,54,72,101],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-grit","category-writing-craft","tag-barbara-esstman","tag-con-lehane","tag-galleycat","tag-louis-sachar","tag-writers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donnadrewsawyer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}