Mollie Cox Bryan's Blog, page 18

In Between on Mary Burton’s Draft Process

Thought I’d touch base with you about how it’s going with HYBRID, book 3 in my mystery series.  I’ve been working through Mary Burton’s draft process.  I’m preparing to move forward on the third draft.

Here’s the third step Mary’s draft process:

“Third Draft/Fine-Tuning:  Focus not only what is said, but also how it is said.   Identify and clearly define story themes and character motivations.   Does each scene and chapter end with a page-turner?”

Okay, so I think I’ve done a good deal of this already as I’ve been going through the other drafts. If something jumped out at me, I changed it, even though I was not necessarily “supposed” to. But I know it needs more fine tuning, which I’m preparing to do.

Also, I’ve sort of leaped ahead and fallen behind at the same time. I’ve already sent a draft to an early reader. She prefers an early read. For me, it’s wonderful getting her help so early on because I often come in short on my word count and she lets me know where she’d like more in the story—that doesn’t mean I will take her advice, though sometimes I do and it’s worked out well.

I’ve sort of fallen behind because I now see that I have another chapter to write after finishing step two. So, my plan is to write that chapter, get back the responses from my reader, and then move on to the third draft and fine-tuning. So maybe I’m not really behind, but in between?

Following Mary’s process has been interesting and helpful. It’s turning out to be more a “guideline” for me rather than something I rigidly follow, and I’m betting that Mary would be okay with that. But in any case, this isn’t a class and she’s not really tutoring me, I’ve just taken this upon myself in an effort to be more efficient with my drafts. Mary’s blog post on the draft process struck a chord with me and I’m glad to give it a go.

In the mean time, I’ve just gotten in the page proofs from SCRAPPED (book two in the series) and so I’ve got plenty to do, as always.

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. Getting my page proofs for SCRAPPED. A huge stack of paper due back by August 1.

2. When I opened the package, my first thought was: Did I really write all that?

3. Talking with Carly about tense and writing about history.

4. How writing a series is so much fun and also such a challenge.

5. Running in the AC on a nice track is my savior today. Indeed it is.

Forty-nine and Still Seeking

Recently, I touched base with an old friend—actually she is the mother of several girls I grew up with. She has sort of unconventional beliefs. When she asked me, point blank, if I was a “believer,” it gave me pause. Am I?  I totally thought that by my age I’d be more certain of the important things—like God.

I grew up going to the Presbyterian Church with my grandmother. My mother stayed home on Sundays—she didn’t like church, she loved God, believed in God, just didn’t like the church.

This church is one of the oldest in Pa.—Service United Presbyterian. It’s a simple, small one-room red-brick church that sits out in the country on a reservoir of pristine water. It’s surrounded by an old cemetery, trees, and snaking dirt roads. My favorite part of going to church was getting out of the small room and walking down by the water. That the church was simple, that the music was traditional, that it sat in the country, that I loved be outside of it—these are the things that, looking back, have influenced me in finding my own way.

Enter my first husband, who was a Moslem. I converted to Islam and broke my grandmother’s heart, at least for a brief time.  Islam appealed to my intellect. Christianity to my heart. But I couldn’t be both. Or at least it didn’t seem like I could. During this time in my life, my world view expanded. I began to think of religion and culture in different ways. I learned how the Bible was written—not by God, as I was always taught. And through my converting to Islam, I gained a whole new respect for Jesus and the miracles he performed. Think on that for a moment. Given what many of us think we know about Islam. Let that sit in your mind.

Exit my first husband. Shattered, I questioned everything, my new religion, my old religion—and both had failed me. After all, I had been a good follower of both, yet it didn’t work out the way either one of them promised. Not the way my conservative upbringing promised. I began to look deeply at the foundations of religion. I read almost every book about religion I could get my hands on looking for answers.  I read so much that I probably could have gotten a master’s degree in religion.

I started meditating, became very centered within myself, went for long walks in the country. (There’s that country thing again.) Then visited a friend in New York City and ended up in a shop in Greenwich Village called “Enchantments.” “What is this Goddess everybody is talking about?” I asked my friend. “The feminine God—Gaia, Earth Mama,” she replied. And my heart split open—as I remembered that pristine reservoir where my first church sat. The grass. The trees. These are the constants in my spiritual life.

Which is why I married my second husband looking out over that water, twenty-one years ago. I’ve been a member of women’s spirit groups and circles. I’ve found that many of the gatherings reminded me too much of church—the rituals, the “stuff”, the group politics. So I decided to continue on my own path. I no longer feel the need to call myself anything. And yet, it would be soothing, centering, I suppose to really have a belief system. One that I could find strength in. But I just question too much.

My grandmother used to tell me “Don’t question, have faith.” But I’ve made my peace with questioning. I’ve stopped waiting for a grand spiritual awakening. Few of us receive that. Spirituality, and finding God or Goddess or whatever name you choose for Spirit, may just consist of moments or glimpses of a universal movement or hand. The challenge, it seems, may just be awareness.

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. Whipping up some blackberry smoothies this morning for the girls. Blackberries from my own garden.

2. My niece Carly is coming next week! Yay!

3. Moving so slowly on this next draft round on mystery #3. Part of the reason is because my family has been around. But I’m not stressing about it because I’m still quite early.

4. Crab apple pie.

5. Morning glories.

Draft 2: Time, Uneven Chapters, Unanswered Questions, and Last Chapter Woes

It’s taken me two full days of work to get through step two of Mary Burton’s process of working with manuscript drafts. At first, I found it tedious and thought I’d never be able to get through it.

As a reminder, part two is:

The Second Draft/A Sound Structure:  Start smoothing the story’s structure.  Make sure the scenes flow and are in order.  Don’t bother with real word crafting at this stage.  Start a running list of characters, time stamp each scene and record number of pages per chapter.

Working on this hurt my brain in much the same way writing a synopsis does. It was unpleasant, but about half way through, I started to see the merits of it. Making the lists forced me to really back away from this creative chunk of work and look at it with a different eye.

Here’s what I found that needs to be worked out before I go on to the next step:

1. Issues with the time. No surprise there. But it’s good to take care of this now.

2. Uneven chapters. Nobody has ever said your chapters need to be even. But I like to have them about the same length if possible. Sometimes it’s not. But for me this was particularly helpful because I am short in terms of word count. So I’m going to look at those small chapters first. It seems the thing to do.

3. Unanswered questions. My first draft or “sloppy copy” as Mary calls it was very sloppy. As I write, if I don’t know the answer to something that comes up, I mark it with question marks. I found more of those than what I remembered. I made a list of those questions as well as marked them in red on the manuscript. Having a list of them seems to trick my brain into thinking this will be more manageable.

4. The last chapter isn’t really the last chapter. I see that now. Or is it that another chapter should be inserted before it? I like the idea of ending the book with this particular image. But it’s not working. It feels abrupt. So it needs reworking.

So, next week I’ll be making phone calls and shoring up some of the loose ends of the research. And I’ll be taking a look at those short chapters and writing more.

After I’m finished with fleshing the story out, I will go on to the next step in Mary’s list—even if some of my questions aren’t answered. The questions are really just about details and won’t affect the major plot points.

This part in the process could take a week or two—particularly because it’s summer and my daughters are home. Also, I’m working on a few other projects, as well. I plan to work on HYBRID at least half of my day, when I have a day to work.

Here’s the next step in Mary’s system:

Third Draft/Fine-Tuning:  Focus not only what is said, but also how it is said.  Identify and clearly define story themes and character motivations.   Does each scene and chapter end with a page-turner? 

I look forward to this step. It looks less tedious to me than the one I’ve just done. But, of course, I won’t know until I get there.

Draft #2: A Sound Structure

So I’m getting ready to take another look at my draft of the third book in my Cumberland Creek Mystery series. It’s been sitting for a good three weeks, maybe longer. I’ve used this time to start another book and hang out with my daughters. This week, I only have a few days to work because we are going out of town on Friday. It’s all about balance, people.

With this book, which I’m calling HYBRID and trying to not get too attached to because it most likely will be changed by the publisher, I’m using Mary Burton’s advice for breaking your drafts into steps.  I’ve never approached my drafts like this and when I read Mary’s post, it struck me that this process might help me. Instead of trying to catch it all in every draft, just focusing on a few things as I go along seems much more efficient.

So Mary says:

The First Draft/The Sloppy Copy:  Armed with a synopsis, set a daily page goal and start writing.  At this stage, no editing allowed.  If a scene comes to you out of order, write it.  The First Draft is all about getting the story down.

Done that.

Mary’s next step is:

“The Second Draft/A Sound Structure:  Start smoothing the story’s structure.  Make sure the scenes flow and are in order.  Don’t bother with real word crafting at this stage.  Start a running list of characters, time stamp each scene and record number of pages per chapter.”

Okay, I sort have a head start on this step because this book is the third in my series. I know the main characters and have a list. But there are a few new characters. So I will list them. Also, I’m going to add a research check into this step. I have phone calls to make, websites to check, and so on. Since I’m going to make lists, this seems like a good time to do it.

The time stamp aspect of this step will be a struggle for me. Time in my novels is always a challenge. Maybe approaching it like this will help. In the past, I’ve printed out my manuscript and drew actual timelines, which was cumbersome.

Mary Burton is a gifted, prolific, and efficient writer—but just because this works for her, doesn’t mean it will for me. I’m willing to give it a go. Stay tuned.

Cover Love

For those of you who  have not heard me screaming from from the rooftops, or have not seen my Facebook posts, here is the cover for the second in the Cumberland Creek Mystery series. I love it, what do you think?

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. Gorgeous morning for a run or walk or anything outside. Clear blue skies. Cool breeze on my skin. Low humidity. You can’t beat it.

2. Running up small hills. I could not have done that a few years ago. I’ve come a long way, baby. Grin.

3. Man I ran by gave me a huge grin. I don’t know if he was laughing at me or LIKING me. Can’t tell and don’t care. heh.

4. The kids of my girls dance studio are heading to NYC this morning. One student is up for a national championship.What can you say about a boy living in the Shenandoah Valley that dances and excels? What heart, what passion, what drive.

5. A professional organizer is coming to my house today. Word.

Catch Me if You Can!

Today, I’m  heading to Charlottesville, Va., to the Writer House. Literary Ladies who Lunch, a group I’ve belonged to for several years, is learning about Writer House today. Also, Jenny Gardiner and I will be interviewed by Janis Jaquith about building a writer’s platform. I’m honored and thrilled to be asked and can’t wait to see hear what Jenny has to say. For more information on either one of these fabulous women and writers, click on their names. In the mean time, I will be working on the copy edits for SCRAPPED, book two in the Cumberland Creek Series, all next week. I wrote a post on Killer Hobbies yesterday about how it’s going. Check it out and have a great weekend!

Five things I thought about during my morning run:

1. Really nice to hear from my editor and agent both in the same day yesterday. I have my copy edits back for SCRAPPED. And I have to say that it doesn’t look too bad at all. I really like this copy editor.

2. It’s troubling to smell a skunk and not see one. Is it behind me? Where is it?

3. Thinking hard about digital scrapbooking. It’s so much fun.

4. Oye, the sweat is pouting.

5. Oh, a Bluebird! Let me take a picture! Stay still, please…FAIL!