What do sports and writing have in common?
What writers can learn from sports?
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Tag Archive for manuscript
What do sports and writing have in common?
Why do you write?
While sitting here editing my manuscript in excruciating pain and misery, I wondered why I wrote this piece of fiction in the first place. And if you’re asking the same question like me, then you’re not alone. Rewriting, editing or whatever you name your revision process for your draft brings out all sort of emotional angst—now that you’re forced to look at your manuscript through a cold eye.
The fun of writing just ended. Now the real task begins.
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Writing is rewriting
Now you have completed your first draft of your manuscript – what’s next?
You should ignore it for several weeks – at least two to three weeks. When you take it out and look at it you should examine it and read it – as a reader with a fresh mind and perspective.
After completing your reading you should ask yourself these questions, “What lingers the most in your mind with what you’ve written?” Are you happy with the ending – or do you think something could be done to improve it? What is it? I find myself asking the same questions over and over when I revise my manuscript.
It is true. Writing is actually rewriting. Your first draft is not complete until it has been revised and rewritten.
There are a lot of “how to books” out there to assist you with the task of editing your manuscript. I find the following advice found in many of them to be helpful:
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Writing the manuscript vs. blogging
If you have started to write your manuscript I believe you write everyday? I do. I am trying to complete my manuscript as fast as I can. I have all the outlines done to get the plot moving scene-by-scene. Now with the little time I have consumed writing the manuscript, it seems I am not producing it fast enough. I find the characters are begging to be written.
The prolific writer will write everyday up to 2,000 words. If your novel is about 100,000 words, it will take you about 50 days to complete. I would love to be able to do that.
So, I have to make the decision that blogging is become secondary.
I will resume to blog daily when I complete the first draft of my manuscript. In the meantime, I will be organizing the articles I have written so far into a somewhat presentable format for the first timer who visits my blog.
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Being a writer and an editor of your fiction
As a writer you have to write and edit your manuscript. This is very tricky because you are first the author and then must switch positions to become the editor of what you’ve written. Ouch! This is too much painful work!
But the reality is this: you have to experience the process of editing your own work if you decide to be a writer. No exceptions and no easy way out because no one writes flawlessly the first time. And don’t even let me mention the business side of writing yet where you will confront the editor at your publisher.
I remember one of my fellow writer friends who told me she will get sick for a week right after she finishes her manuscript. Then she has to drag herself to edit the draft next. When I saw her during a writer’s conference she really looked like she was just recovering from an unknown disease.
How you do the editing task is up to you. Some writers will edit right after completing the manuscript, while others prefer to edit while writing. Whichever technique is best for you it is the editing process itself that takes the most out of you as a writer.
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How to maintain reader interest to the end for your fiction
Authors write fiction with goals in mind: they want the reader to read and learn something from their character’s experience. Additionally, the reader expects the story to be entertaining as well. It all sounds fairly easy and straightforward as it makes writing fiction interesting, but it is not. Any writer who’s published or attempted to write a short story or novel understands – writing fiction is easy; writing fiction that maintains the reader’s interest throughout is not.
So how do you present your story to hook the reader from beginning to end? Your ability as a writer is now challenged and you need to equip yourself with several plot devices. These devices help you to captivate your reader’s interest in your story. One type of plot device is suspense. Suspense is when the reader has to wait and worry about what will happen next to the main character(s).
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