Time to kill the darlings
I made another book cover mockup. It’s a way to psyche myself up and get excited about working on the book. You may think, that’s a little delusional, but who else will advocate for my own work but me?!
This is what if Bygone had a contemporary romance book cover style. This is not what it’s going to be and this is just for fun, so chill.
Let see how many book cover mockups I end up with. Hah! Anyway, I’m not procrastinating. I promise! This is the kind of prep I need before doing real editing.
Earlier this month, I started editing the first chapter of my first draft.
But not even halfway through, I realized I was adding more, lengthening scenes and internal dialogue. I stopped when my opening scene was now two pages long. I knew immediately that this was going to be a pacing issue.
I took a step back and looked at my entire draft. I came to the conclusion that I had to kill my darlings.
But how?
Saving the Cat
A while back, I bought Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel because 1) I need some semblance of a self-editing guide, and 2) why the heck not?
I knew about the Save the Cat! Beat sheet, but as I was writing my first draft, I stayed away from any new writing advice and just vomited everything out on paper. I didn’t want to think about hitting beats consciously. I just let myself write, guided by my general outline.
Now that I was done with my first draft, I needed a guide to see if I was doing this right. When I went through the book, read through its beat sheets and sample genres, I gained clarity.
One thing I was happy to learn was that I was following the natural flow of storytelling without even realizing it. I was hitting 90% of the beats. I made post-it notes of where I was hitting them in my first draft alone. It was a confidence booster that I sort of knew what I was doing. Shout out to earning my BA in Creative Writing!
Raising the Stakes
However, the book made it glaringly clear where I was lacking: I had no compelling catalyst to push my character from Act 1 to Act 2; I had pacing issues and bouts of info dumping; and my main character and the background characters needed some fleshing out.
I kind of knew the latter two were where the bulk of my efforts would go, but the Catalyst one was an eye-opener. I sort of have one in my first draft, but it's a bit weak. It was a scene that wouldn’t really push anyone to do something. I need to raise my stakes. So raise it I will.
Save the Cat! was a good guide to me. It outlined how other popular and classical novels follow the flow of storytelling, without preaching that it’s the formula for success. It doesn’t tell you to follow the beat sheets to the T, but it explains the whys behind existing story elements and what to watch out for.
I’m not saying Save the Cat! is like THE novel-writing book to end all novel-writing books, but it helped me make sense of my first draft and is a good self-editing guide. I recommend it whether you’re just outlining before writing or going through your draft's edits.
I know I still have a long way to go. I’m on the hunt for beta readers after this drafting process, and I'll also look for an editor at some point if querying doesn’t pan out for me. Nothing beats others reading your manuscript and giving you feedback, of course!
Now it’s time to roll up my sleeves! We’re finally editing! For real this time!
