When writing a book, there are no shortcuts. One time an author, speaking at a writer’s conference, told this story:
Minnie McGillacutty, and author of a lengthy series, remarked that she had written her last book in three weeks. The speaker said he read the book and wondered what took her so long.
While I admit that Members of the Cast (MOTC) is not a smash hit (yet), it is in pretty good shape. I don’t work eight hours a day on writing, but I write six days a week. MOTC was in editing and revision for over four years.
George Plimpton of The Paris Review interviewed Ernest Hemingway: https://www.mhpbooks.com/excerpt-ernest-hemingways-last-interview/
INTERVIEWER: How much rewriting do you do?
HEMINGWAY: It depends. I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.
INTERVIEWER: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that stumped you?
HEMINGWAY: Getting the words right.
Once Members of the Cast was done, it wasn’t done. I sent it to agents who made kind suggestions. Along the way, beta readers read the book and made comments. I have three critique partners who made careful edits and plot evaluations. The book received many revisions through the years, and after a revision, a book must be treated as a first draft, requiring careful editing.
When I gave up on getting an agent, I found I needed to research “brand names” to handle them properly. I had quoted a line of several copyrighted songs, and I suppose I hoped that a trade house would solve all of these questions. Changing a brand name required multiple searches to ensure all had been located and that the change didn’t create a grammatical problem.
I am proud of MOTC. One purchaser remarked that it was the first book she had read for a while that she didn’t cringe and want to get out a red pencil. Was all the work worth it? Sure, because I wanted to “get the words right.”
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