What to Keep When Editing Requires a Reset

The “Now What?” Months are here! In 2014, we’ll be bringing you advice from authors who published their NaNo-novels, editors, agents, and more to help you polish November’s first draft until it gleams. Author Cristina Alger tells us what to do when editing requires mass-deletion :

“So what did you think of my manuscript?”

“It was good.” Jenn smiled at as she took a sip of her coffee. And then, after a pause: “Have you ever heard the term ‘updraft’?”

I shook my head.

“An updraft is a basically a rough first draft, in which the author is just getting ideas onto the page. The term comes from throwing up. As in, you sort of just throw up on to a page. An updraft.” She smiled again.

I nodded, speechless. Had she just compared my manuscript to throw up? I was prepared to hear that my manuscript was boring, or badly written, or otherwise unpublishable. Frankly, I was grateful that Jenn, a well-known agent at a well-known literary agency, had bothered to read it at all and was willing to give me feedback. But … throw up?

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Jenn said. “Most writers go through this process. You throw up onto the page. You go back and see what sticks. Then you rewrite.”

“So basically, you’re telling me that none of this is worth saving? I have to start over?”

I looked at the manuscript in my hands: nearly 100,000 words of material that was now destined for the recycling bin. My heart felt like it had been ripped out of my chest.

“Not at all,” she shook her head. “That’s not what I’m saying. Look, I think what you should do is put this in a drawer for a while. Two weeks, a month, whatever. Then, when you feel like you have some distance, go back and re-read it with a critical eye. You might find that while you have some great ideas in there, characters or themes or relationships that are worth salvaging, most of the text itself has to go. And that’s okay. Text is not sacred. Do not fear the Delete button. I hate to see writers wasting their time to save paragraphs or chapters when it would be easier and less time-consuming to just re-write them. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I nodded dumbly, though inside I was crushed. Still, I took her advice. I put the manuscript in the drawer. A month later, I took it out, poured myself a large glass of wine, and began to read. And I saw exactly what she meant.

My first draft was poorly plotted. It read more like a series of short stories than one cohesive novel. I hadn’t used an outline the first time around, and it showed. I also hadn’t found my voice. The first quarter of the manuscript was written in a self-conscious, overly labored prose, while the last quarter felt much cleaner and more streamlined. On the plus side, I loved my characters. I loved how the book took place in a tight time frame—over a matter of days. And I loved the descriptions of New York and the Hamptons.

Characters. Time frame. Setting.

I forced myself to sit down and write an outline, based on those three ingredients. Once I was done, I began again, on a fresh Word document with the daunting word count of zero.

A year later, the second draft was done. This was the draft I submitted to agents—Jenn among them—and later, to editors. Almost none of the text of the first draft remained. Once my editor at Penguin purchased the book, she handed me a list of comments—ranging from minute to structural—and the process began again.

By the time the book hit the shelves, I had written the equivalent of four books, maybe five. At least 500,000 words, 420,000 of which would never see the light of day.

I’m working on the first draft of my second novel now. Knowing that most—if not all—of it will end up in the trash is strangely freeing. Instead of editing as I go, I’m just trying to get the whole story down on paper. When I’m done, I plan to put it in a drawer and leave it there for at least a couple weeks. And then, I will pour myself a large glass of wine and get ready to start deleting.

Cristina Alger is a writer, a former corporate lawyer, and a lifelong New Yorker. Her first novel, The Darlings , was published in 2012 by Penguin/Viking Press. She is at work on her second novel.

Top photo by Flickr user permutatedSilver.