Layering in the Third Draft

Most of my first readers have returned their copies of my manuscripts to me complete with a variety of insightful comments, criticisms, and suggestions. They’ve given me much food for thought, from technical mistakes to motivational shortcomings to situations that frustrated the reader. Some fixes are simple. Some require a bit of revamping.

All comments have been given serious consideration. And today I have begun what I hope to be the last major rewrite, also known as THE THIRD DRAFT.

Last major rewrite? Perhaps I’m too optimistic. Perhaps it would be more accurate to specify that this will be the last major rewrite prior to the Pennwriters Conference.

It’s occurred to me that this Third Draft thing is going to happen in layers. I had six first readers. Three of them had returned their marked-up copies to me, and I had gone through them, making notes of my own to the pages. This gave me a pretty good idea of what needed to be changed.

Yesterday, I received a fourth copy back. Rather than add more confusion to my addled brain, I’ve decided to wait on reviewing the fourth copy. I’m going to fix what I already know needs fixed. THEN I’ll dive into the newer comments. Maybe I’ll have those two outstanding ones back by then.

I think my hope is that the second set of three will contain duplicate comments. I’ll discover I’ve already fixed everything that doesn’t work.

Ha! Yes, I know. Fat chance.

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