Hey, everyone. Welcome to our blog!
I’m Casey Wyatt, Friday’s Scribe. I write Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. I’ve always loved stories with magic and otherworldly elements. Growing up, I was a geek fan girl of Fantasy and Sci-Fi books. I still enjoy them. I’ve since expanded to include Romance, Urban Fantasy, manga, anime (okay, I know anime’s not a written genre, but it’s a great art form), and anything with zombies!
As a writer, I love to write steamy romantic encounters, dark scenes, and subject my characters to emotional or physical chaos.
So, about the title of this blog – I like it rough. Yes, I do. That first, rough draft.
The only draft where, creatively, I’m allowed to do whatever I want. No criticism, no doubt, and no English teacher rules allowed. No self-editing along the way. And it’s not easy to do. At least not for me. In my day job, when I write, I’m the creator and editor at the same time. Totally efficient for business writing.
Not great when writing a novel. Embrace this reality. There’s no such thing as a perfect first draft. Accept this fact too – there is no such thing as a perfect manuscript either. Trust me. Believe these truths and you’ll feel a lot better.
On that happy day, when the first draft is done, for a brief shining moment, I marvel at my creation. It’s an awesome sight to behold. I savor the “I finished it” high. Ah, such sweet victory.
Then it’s back to reality. The internal critic/editor runs wild. Here’s where I fix the typos, delete things that don’t make sense, plug the plot holes, and correct the wonky grammar (commas and I have a love/hate relationship). After that it’s off to my trusted beta readers and critique partners. And then a final round of polishing (only the changes I agree with).
I’m a firm believer (this is also from hard-won experience) in letting the book go. It will never be perfect, so please, I’m begging you – do not revise your book over and over. That is just a rat hole. An excuse not to move on. As NY Times bestseller, Jessica Anderson likes to say: “you’re re-arranging the furniture”.
Send your book out into the world and move on to the next one. If you don’t continue writing new material, you’ll never grow your skills.
Viva the first draft. Scribe on!
Writing Secrets of 7 Scribes 
Agree, agree, agree! Two weeks ago, I sent out my ms and “let it go” after a year of trying to get it “right.” And I’ll tell you, you start to hate your book and your characters after that amount of time.
But I started on book two, and feel the excitement of being a writer again. I missed this!
I’ll confess, I’m a recovering first draft addict. My first four manuscripts were never revised. My last two or three, I’ve revised to death. I get caught up in the minutia–how in God’s name did I not notice that I used the word ‘that’ 968 times in a 70k word book? That’s what critique partners and beta readers are good for. I’m afraid I’m guilty of the re-arranging the furniture thing and never seem to quite be ‘done’ with editing and revision. I’m sure I’ll pull my published book off a shelf someday and notice places I would still make changes. ONe can hope!
Well, I think we know who the Queen of this petty kingdom of Furniture Rearrangers is. But I’m abdicating, I swear! I too have let my MS go into the world, and it is liberating. Thanks for the wonderful, well-timed advice, Casey.
Hear, Here! I let go of my first novel, The Cordovan Vault, just a hair too early and had to put out a second edition to fix my homophone problems. But even so, let it go – put it out there and move on. What good is a story that no-one reads?
You guys are cracking me up! I think we can all agree we have all experienced “revision” performance anxiety.
Since I’m the only scribe who has yet to comment, I just wanted to say…. Well, nothing. Except that I too misuse and abuse the comma.
I volunteer Susannah to give up a workshop on correct comma usage!! All in favor say Aye.
Aye!!
One “aye” is hardly enough. But I shall consider it anyway!