I finished the first draft of my latest novel project yesterday. It’s a thriller; a new genre for me, and it takes place in an alternate universe in terms of time and place, so I had to do a lot of research, which was great fun.
The story is on the page, but it’s not done yet. Not for me, at any rate. Some writers are able to produce a fully-fledged reader-ready story in one draft, but I am not one of them. Yet. Where my first draft focuses on the plot and action, I concentrate on deepening characterization and emotional impact in the second draft. For me, writing that second draft imparts heart and soul into the story. I don’t consider it revision, I think of it as icing the cake.
On to round two.
