I knocked out 'Refuse to Be Done' by Matt Bell earlier today. It's a book about writing, but it is such a valuable one - probably the best of the admittedly small handful that I've ever read. It has lots of outstanding tips and approaches to writing and to re-writing and polishing one's novel.
I read this having finished a first draft, which I revised lightly, of a full length novel that I love entitled 'Within Reach.' I have given it to a handful of friends, got some positive feedback but not much. I have read it all the way through twice now after having written it. I like it. But it is a foundation for what it will become. Some of the approaches suggested by Bell in his book are arduous and seemingly extreme....but I think he's right. I think those steps will improve one's book dramatically and I think it takes the time it takes to write the book one truly wants to write.
It's inspiring to think about. But I have oh-so-much more to do now. But at least I have a roadmap of how to approach it and what steps to take to polish it as much as I can.
I am also in the process of drafting a second novel entitled 'In the Shadows of Light.' Yet another book whose idea I love, but it isn't yet realized. Even though this is a first draft being written, there was some meaningful feedback about how to keep at it and persevere to the second draft. One of them, writing in an exploratory fashion, I'm not comfortable doing with this draft as I have already outlined it and want to follow the trail I laid. I will write my third novel in an exploratory fashion, however. I'm looking forward to it. But I have a lot to do with both books in the meantime and want to at least have both drafted and/or done before starting a third for arbitrary and capricious reasons.
Regarding re-write's, for the second draft, one of Bell's recommendations was to re-write the book. Seriously. At first that seemed like overkill but, the more I think about it, the more I like it. This, in conjunction with reevaluating scene placement and presentation and a host of other things.
Once one gets to the third draft, Bell has a number of additional recommendations that I look forward to doing during this phase. These include printing out the book and highlighting various passages with different colored highlighters. These include weak sentences, flashbacks, strong sentences, sections that incited emotion in you upon reading, and others. Bell also recommended tightening up the book by removing superfluous words that don't add value. He included a list of words to watch out for, which I rather agree with.
There's also a technique to remove enough words from each paragraph to reduce its size by a line (basically however many words are trailing into a partial line at the end). He notes that this trimming requires some judgment calls, especially as, at this point, the book has already been re-written and scrubbed in several different ways. He asserts, though, that this always strengthens his book. The number of words being trimmed is obviously arbitrary but the idea is to remove unneeded language or improve word usage.
I felt a surge of elation and relief when I finished my first draft. I knew there would be extensive editing in the event that the book got selected for publication, but didn't realize just how much additional work I could put into it on my own that would achieve tangible results. This is an inspiring book that I would recommend to anyone who has written, or hopes to write, a novel.