Guest blogger Lacy Williams: "Layering: a technique to get your manuscript to a publishable final draft"

To contact us Click HERE

Lacy Williams

Working on my third contracted book (to be published inDecember), I suddenly realized “I have a method!”Since I first got serious about writing for publication,I’ve spent years working on craft and listening to authors describe how theywrite books. For some, it is doing a lot of pre-work and outlining andthen they can write a 100k book in 30 days (I can’t even imagine it!). Forothers, it is editing as they go along, so they have a finished product whenthey get to “the end.” Well, I discovered I do have a method that works for me. Andit only took five years and three books for me to find it! I call my techniquelayering, and I’m sure it’s not original. I think of the book like alayer-cake.If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you probablyhave many of the raw ingredients it takes to write a book (a plot, characters,conflict, setting, etc.). But how do you put them together in a way that itends up in a salable, completed manuscript?Here’s what I do:

CAKE PAN

I think of the cake pan as the FRAMEWORK for the novel. Whatis the target audience? Is the novel a romance? Women’s fiction? A story of thecharacter finding themselves? A suspense? Who is the targeted publisher? Whatis the goal word-count? I also do extensive character work before I officially startwriting the novel. I love and continue to use Donald Maass’s WRITING THEBREAKOUT NOVEL WORKBOOK for his character exercises. I recently also discoveredNoah Lukeman’s THE PLOT THICKENS, which also has good questions to answer aboutyour characters. I tend to plot by the classic 3-act structure and so beforeI start the first draft, I write down where my characters are in the Beginning,the three Disasters, and the Ending. This is all subject to change as I getinto writing the novel, but I start with an idea of what these major plotpoints are.

LAYER 1

This is my FIRST DRAFT. I write as fast as I can, as much asI can in each sitting, so that I stay “in character.” This helps me keep thecharacter voices consistent and the book flows better for me. This draft tendstoward the “bare bones.” It is usually shorter than the final word count willbe (usually about 10k words short). I don’t have all of the characters’ physicalmovements in at this point, nor do I have all of the setting details in. Ifocus on dialogue and internal monologue. And here’s a key thing that helped me turn off my internaleditor during this draft. I use brackets.If I’m writing something and I can’t find the[right][perfect] word (or I can’t choose between two), I bracket it and moveon. When I go back through the novel in the second or third draft, I will taketime to focus on word choice. I also use brackets for duplicate words (when Iknow I used the same word one sentence or one paragraph above or below), so Ican go back and eliminate or change one of the usages later.

LAYER 2

At this point, I do two things. 1) I send it to my critiquepartners, who will look at the large picture and find any plot holes, and theywill also look at the characters and tell me if they are working or not. 2) Iprint out the manuscript in landscape layout with two columns of text (to lookmore like an open book). I also shrink the text and print front/back to savepaper. Then I really start on my edits.For this layer, I take a long, hard look at CONFLICT. Checkout this post from last year on how I do this.I make notations directly on the paper manuscript for thingsI want to change. 

LAYER 3

I will go back through the paper manuscript again, using adifferent color pen this time. During this layer, I look at my CHARACTERS. Arethey acting in character throughout the book? Does their dialogue fit? Is itsharp and interesting? 

LAYER 4

During this layer I go back through the paper manuscript yetagain, this time examining PHYSICAL MOVEMENTS and SETTING. Use a differentcolor pen again.Usually, by this time my crit partners have given me lots tothink about. I’ll mark some of their comments in the manuscript too, for thingsI want to change.I then sit down at the computer with my multicolored,marked-up, dog-eared paper manuscript and make the changes I’ve noted on myWord document. It takes awhile. This is what I call my official SECOND DRAFT,but it may be significantly different from the FIRST DRAFT, because I have(hopefully) upped the conflict, smoothed out any plot holes, and perfected mycharacters.

ICING

This is the last part, the finesse part. First, I use a program called NoteTab Light (a freeprogram). This program takes the text of my manuscript and counts the instancesof each word used. This is an easy way to pick out my “weasel words” for themanuscript (they change for each new manuscript I write!). Then I go intoMicrosoft Word and highlight all the instances of those weasel words so I cancut some of them out.I also highlight all the –ly words (although I end upleaving a lot of them in, I want to make sure not to overuse!), as well as “was,”one of my personal favorite passive verbs.Then when my on-screen manuscript is all colorful, I will doa careful read-through and line-edit away all the brackets and highlights. Thisis as close to perfect as I will get the manuscript without help from myeditor, who always manages to catch more instances of duplicate words orawkward phrasings. From start to finish, my process takes a couple months for a75k-word novel. It might not work for everyone, but it does work for me. HopeI’ve given you something to think about when you’re in editing-mode!

ABOUT LACY

By day, Lacy Williams is a stay-at-home mom battling dirtydiapers and dog-hair dust-bunnies. By night, she is a novelist whose debut bookhas been nominated for an RT Book Reviews2011 Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her current projects include a screenplay andpotty-training her little girl. 

A GIFT FOR YOU

To celebrate her birthday this month, Lacy is doing aspecial gift giveaway for her readers. Visit www.megamaybirthdaybash.com fordetails.Lacy has also offered to give away two copies (one paperback, one PDF) of her latest release, The Homesteader's Sweetheart. Watch for the winners' announcement in the next Weekend Edition!