Fiction Scribe

It seems the fun isn’t quite yet over at 451 headquarters.

451 management recently purchased all kinds of new equipment and is in the process of switching everything over to those new systems. As you can imagine, doing all that isn’t easy and comes with its own hiccups.

I’ve been told that the blogs shouldn’t experience a lot of down time, but you can expect hiccups, burps, and maybe even the occasional fart in the next few days. Be assured that everything will still be puttering along and you should definitely come back!

I promise you that we are just as tired as you when it comes to the sites’ down time. Hopefully everything will be switched over by the end of this week and next week we will be running back to normal next week. (Or maybe even starting this weekend…)

Again, I’m so, so sorry for the down time. I know that, even when it’s out of your hands, a blog having down time can reflect negatively on the blogger. I have some interesting things coming up in the future, though, so I hope that is enough to keep you coming back.

And, just to keep you entertained while things are getting taken care of (not that I think you can’t entertain yourselves), here is the link to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog. There is a lot of fun to be had and the final installment is coming soon!

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Be well and have a fantastic rest of the week.

Ah, it’s finally happened; you have written your first draft.

If you follow the Stephen King method, you can finally open the door of your writing room and reintroduce yourself to your family. Order a pizza, open a bottle of wine, bake a chocolate cake… Do whatever it is you do to celebrate a good occasion.

The next day, when you’re getting past the hangover and the sour stomach from too much wine, pizza, and chocolate cake, you once again enter your writing room/space.

There it is. Your manuscript. Draft numero uno. Ugly/beautiful thing.

You’re now faced with the question many writers are faced with: How long do I wait before I write the second draft?

Fantasy author Karen Miller surprised me when she said she didn’t wait between drafts. When she finished her first draft, she went right back to the beginning and started working on the second draft.

In On Writing, Stephen King recommends at least six weeks of rest time between the first draft and the second.

I find myself caught in the middle. I see the point of doing it right away. The characters are still fresh in your mind with voices stronger than ever, you know more or less for sure what your ending is going to be, and you’re more familiar with the steps of the story than you were in the beginning.

But then again, the break between drafts lets your mind have a break so you can come back to things with ‘fresh eyes’.

Call me traditional, but I highly recommend the break somewhere along the line. Whether it’s between draft one and two or two and three, there is no self-editing tool like taking a break and coming back to it with the mind of an editor instead of a writer.

Do you take a break between drafts? If yes, how long? Why? If no, why not?