The First Cut is the Deepest by Jane Clamp

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Polishing our work is painstaking but necessary

Although I have a lot of experience in writing short pieces: blogs, devotionals, articles; I have a not-so-secret hankering to be a novelist. (Readers might like to visit Fran Hill's blog from two days ago, which has some great tips.) I have my pen name in position – thanks to the helpful suggestions of the ACW Facebook page members a long time ago. I have several started masterpieces, notebooks with ideas for future titles, if not actual content - oh, and a new office chair.

I completed my first novel in September 2016. It was a milestone, or should that be mill-stone? I sent it to someone in the industry who was keen to see it. She didn’t love the plot and, although I tweaked it a bit in the hopes of winning her round, it wasn’t to be. I left it for a bit, re-worked it a lot, and declared it finished again. I tried to get the interest of an agent, but none were biting. I left it for a bit longer, until the sudden revelation that I should re-write it in the first person. Last summer, that re-write was complete and I had the interest of someone else in the industry. She loved the title, but said it needed work. So, not finished after all then.

At the turn of the year, I gave up my interior design business in order to concentrate on writing. I worked on another title, not a disaster, but not the next best-seller either. Then, on one of my newly established long walks in the middle of the day, I had a revelation about my protagonist. Despite having got to know her quite well over the last four years, there was something she hadn’t told me. And that something changed everything.

I am now on my fourth major re-write, about halfway through, with a self-imposed deadline of a couple of weeks away. For the first time, the book makes sense to me. Equally, I am seeing mistakes and continuity errors and, frankly, moments of poor writing. My first major critic was right: the original plot sucked. My second was also right: despite the hours and hours of work, the draft manuscript wasn’t ready yet.

In our last ACW writers’ group meeting, I led a session on editing. Having written a short piece of free poetry or prose, we then had to return to it by either adding twenty words or taking out ten to fifteen. It seemed hardest on the talented poets, whose first drafts were already singing; but we all gave it a go. Without exception, the second version was better than the first: clearer and more focussed. It stretched our writing muscles and made us think more about our reader.

Editing. It might seem a dirty word, but our work comes up cleaner for its application.

 

Jane Clamp is the author of Too Soon (SPCK) and Groups' Coordinator for ACW.