Damn and Layering

Ah damn. Got another rejection today. This one from an agent. She didn't say I sucked, or make any suggestions or anything. She just said she didn't think she was the right agent for me and to keep sending it out because all it takes is one person to say yes. At least she let me down easy. :-)

On to the next person!

Today's topic was going to be layering your book, so I'll move on with that. I put several layers into my books. There's the "don't look down" draft, which tends to produce somewhat clicheed, simple writing with sparks of life. Then I go back and make it better, looking at characters, plot devices, people's reactions, dialogue, etc. This puts the book in good shape, but still in a rough form.

Then I go back and start layering. I layer in description in natural places so it doesn't feel like an info dump, layer in complex reactions, unexpected touches, good use of language to make things pop, etc. This is my favorite part. This is where my writing really starts to gel and where I start to fall in love with whatever current book I'm working on.

Then I polish the heck out of it, analyzing each sentence, each paragraph, each scene. Then of course copy edit, spell check, then I set it aside for a couple of weeks. After that, with a fresh eye, I read it one more time hard copy and fix anything I see. At that point it's as good as it's going to get for now so I start sending it out.

I've heard rumors of people who write slow and get the book out in more or less final format the first run. Argh. I don't know how they do it! Some things only occur to me after I've written the entire book. Some fixes only occur to me after a couple of drafts. My brain just needs to chew on a book one stage at a time, I guess. Writing a book is a surprisingly complex process. There's so many things to consider, there's no way I can get it out in one run. Maybe after 20 years of practice. :-)