I’m working on the second draft of my fourth novel and I think a good comparison is making a cake and adding another layer. The first draft is the first layer, the foundation of the story. The plot and characters and settings are all there, but it’s not complete. Each time I make a new draft, I’m adding another layer, creating more depth and, I hope, a more detailed and interesting story. I’m also editing for language, flow, sentence structure, scene and chapter transitions, and all of the things that affect the readability of a book.

When I’m writing a first draft, I make lots of notes for the second draft. I type many of them right into the “margin” of the manuscript, using the comments function in Word. The margin notes are about things I don’t want to stop and deal with while I’m writing, because that will interrupt the flow. So I just make a little note to myself for later. A margin note might be about my need to do further

A friend once asked if I had trouble letting go of a book when I knew I was getting to the end of writing it. I’ve only written three books (I’m now tying up some loose ends on my third), but I didn’t hesitate for a second before saying, “No!” When I’m getting to the end I can’t wait to be done and move on to the next project. Getting to the end means I’ve already gone through several rewrites, so by that time I’m tired of the manuscript. More than tired of it. And that’s before my editor even sees it. She’ll have comments and suggestions which will strengthen the story, but it means more revisions. It’s all worth it in the end when the book becomes something I really think my readers will enjoy. But I never have trouble letting go of it.

I grew up in Darien, a suburban town on the Connecticut coast. When I was young I was always writing short stories and poems, and my teachers encouraged me to write – especially my ninth grade English teacher, who was one of two people to whom I dedicated my second novel. By the time I started college, I decided I’d better take up a practical career, as I didn’t think I could ever make a living writing fiction or poetry. I decided to major in journalism because at least that way I’d still be writing, although doing a very different kind of writing.  I spent a couple of years after college working for a small trade magazine in Connecticut (fortunately, an interesting one that covered the field of magazine publishing), and then ended up going back to school to get a law degree. I worked for a law firm and then spent fifteen years working in the legal department of a large corporation in

TIP NO. 1
I thought I’d share a few thoughts about writing, from my own experience. So many people tell me they have a story they want to write. It can be done – I promise you. I started by writing short stories. For me, it was a less intimidating way to get back into fiction writing after a long hiatus than to try to attack a novel. Working on a short story trains you to come up with a beginning, middle, and end, develop characters, create dialog, and do it all within twenty or thirty pages. The chapters in a typical novel are like short stories, held together under the umbrella of a larger tale. So starting small is a great foundation for eventually writing that novel.

TIP NO. 2
Join a class of writing group. It worked for me! I took a fiction writing class at night