Now Comes the Fun Part

By Martha Reed

A wonderful thing happened on Saturday morning around 11AM. I finished my manuscript.

Completely. Finito. Ad infinitum. Can I get a hallelujah?

The best part of finishing it was the realization as I sat there, in my chair at my kitchen table, stunned that I was done, that I had really finished writing my second novel. The true beauty of that moment was that I could finally – after fifteen years of concerted effort – relax. You see, there had always been this niggling doubt in the back of my mind after I finished the first one that I might not be able to do it again. I can lay that doubt, at least, to rest. I did it once. I did it twice. I can do it again.

The best part is, so can you.

I’m not writing this blog to brag about it but I'm in hope that my experience might offer encouragement to someone out there who is struggling through their manuscript now. I’ve been there. It’s tough, no doubt about it. There will come a time when you get half way in at 50,000 words and look at a blank new chapter heading and think: ‘this whole thing is crap and I’ve wasted years of my life’.

Persevere. Please.

Even if you write crap, and more crap, and then edit the crap, you will one day get to a place where one sentence doesn’t really look all that bad. This may lead you to a paragraph and that paragraph may introduce a new character to you and your future readers and that character may be the voice you’ve been looking for. It won’t come easy, and if it does, you’re probably not being completely honest with yourself. Writing is hard; it makes you dig deep because, honey, that’s where the gold is.

How’s that for a voice?

And now for the best part. I get to go shopping for an agent. I love shopping, and this time, I know exactly what I’m looking for – I should – I’ve been researching the idea for as long as I’ve been writing the manuscript. And I have to admit, looking back on it, which is a very nice place to be, that I’m glad it took so long for me to learn the craft because it knocked all the crap out of me, too, as far as my expectations go. I’ve got my head on straight, my eyes on the prize, and I’m ready to play.

Deal me in, boys. I’ve got product. And it's good.

Blackout

By Martha Reed

I had a wonderful time at the Hallie Ephron workshop the other night and one thing Hallie said really stood out for me. She mentioned a writer friend who had completed and submitted a manuscript and the copy editor told the author to ditch the first seven chapters, just strike them off and start the story there, at that fresh point.

Now, I don’t know about you, but writing seven chapters would have taken me three or four months of solid effort and I probably would resist such a suggestion. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to agree with the idea because I ran across a similar happenstance with my first novel. I spent months – literally months – crafting and honing and polishing my opening chapter and had a dreadful realization about halfway through the manuscript that I needed to kill that chapter after all my hard work.

That was when I learned to follow the suggestion of previous writers and just blow through my manuscript until I got the whole story down and THEN go back and start the editing process. I admit that with the first novel I was so amazed that I was even actually writing something that long it was enough for me but I have learned since then not to concentrate so much effort on perfection because IT WILL CHANGE – probably more than once – before the whole thing is over.

I learned this lesson again on Sunday morning. I’m not going to give anything away, but I have a set up between a couple of characters and all along I knew that one of them (Character A) was evil and blackmailing Character B. I thought that the blackmailing would be hateful enough (if slightly clichéd) but as I was working deeper into Character B I realized that this person was such a complete alcoholic Character B doesn’t even remember what happened that eventful night.

Well, I thought, that’s torn it because how can you be blackmailed for something you don’t even remember doing and then the twist came to me, a way to make it even more deliciously evil – Character A knows Character B doesn’t remember what happened and is using the blackout to extort money on the pretext of actually doing good.

Now, if I can make that clear to the reader – my next challenge – my story will take on something fresh while adding a layer of depth to Character A as well as to Character B. Insights and inspirations like this are why I love to write.

Of course, going back to Chapter 3 to edit out the blackmail bit is annoying but as they say, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over – and then I’ll hand it to a copyeditor and edit it some more.