The Process of Writing a Second Draft

Four Steps for Writing the Second Draft of a Novel

Watching Amadeus at age fifteen destroyed my growth as a writer. To this day, this film is one of my all time favorite films, but I watched it when I was young, precocious, and more than a little narcissistic. The scene where Salieri reviews Mozart’s stolen drafts of music left a damaging impression on me. As Salieri reads the sheet music, he says in complete and total awe, “These were first and only drafts of music. But they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. He had simply written down music already finished in his head.”

Then, at fifteen, I already knew I wanted to be a professional writer. I was enrolled in an online school, and most days, I finished my classwork by noon and spent the rest of my day writing. By the time I watched Amadeus, I had finished two “novels” and a feature-length “screenplay.” I use quotes because I was a child, and these projects barely counted for anything, but I was already taking myself seriously as a writer and artist. So, when Salieri marveled at Mozart’s genius—at the fact that Mozart never had to revise his work—I foolishly thought, I want to be just like Mozart. In that moment, I made the decision not to revise anything I wrote.

Needless to say, this stunted my growth as a writer until I let go of this misconception about revision when I was twenty-three. 

Now, it’s been nearly 15 years since I first watched Amadeus, and I’ve adopted a comprehensive revision process that I use for everything I write. Here are the four steps I take to complete the second draft of a novel, short story, or essay:

1. Print out the manuscript

2. Read aloud (really say every word out loud!)

3. Handwrite the revision

4. Retype the manuscript in a new document

A page from You Will Survive This, formerly titled Cheonjimun revised by hand.

My revision process is similar to what Matt Bell describes in his book, Refuse to Be Done. Check it out if you’re interested in a craft book on revision.

Today, we’re breaking down my process for writing the second draft of my novel, You Will Survive This. If you’re interested in seeing my writing process for the first draft, check out last week’s post here.

Draft 2

Stats

• Goals: 

  • Write a coherent draft with a beginning, middle, and end. 

  • Incorporate feedback from Sewanee workshop and writing partner.

• Schedule: 3 months, revise ~17 pages a week 

• Timeline: August 2, 2021 to November 1, 2021

• Audience: My agent and writing partner

The first day of draft 2

Process

It pains me to look at this photo because I was completely and utterly miserable while working on this draft. At the time, I was getting rejection after rejection for my other book that was on sub, and I had no confidence in my writing whatsoever. Even though it’s incredibly difficult to write with low self-esteem, I had to push through for two reasons.

First, I had saved up enough money to be unemployed from May to November. I knew may never get another chance where my only priority would be working on my book. The last thing I wanted to do was waste this opportunity to put my writing first. The second reason was that I needed to submit a draft to my agent before I moved back to Korea. In November, I was going to start a new full-time job, and I had no idea how much free time or energy for writing I would have outside of work. And so, despite battling horribly low self-esteem in my writing life, I worked hard to tune out my self-doubt and focus on my revision goal of 17 pages a week.

Here’s what worked and what I wish I’d done differently for this draft.

What Worked

• Workshopping the first 40 pages before starting draft 2

• Having a writing partner

• Focusing on the macroscopic goal (a coherent story with a beginning middle and end), and not worrying about lower-order concerns (line-to-line writing)

Two weeks before starting this draft, I attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and workshopped the first three chapters of my novel. Our class discussion helped me understand where to focus my revision efforts. I left our workshop with a concrete list of the problems I needed to solve and the possibilities I could explore in my next draft. In last week’s post, I mentioned that the audience for my first draft was myself and only myself, but it’s important to note that I revised the 40 pages I workshopped three times using the steps above before I turned in my submission.

At Sewanee, I met one of my closest writing partners. As soon as we got home from the conference, we sent each other 50-70 pages of our books every month for feedback and encouragement. This accountability was so helpful because I was deep in despair about my writing abilities, and our exchange kept me motivated to keep working on my book. Our partnership also worked as a great sounding board as we asked editorial questions about our own work for a second opinion. We also shared guiding questions with each other to help the other see new possibilities in the story.

If you’re interested in a post on how to find and foster a writing partnership, let me know in the comments!

What I Wish I’d Done Differently

• Ask my agent not to share rejection letters with me

I’ve talked about this before but I had a rough experience on sub the first time, and I wish I had asked my agent to not share the rejection letters with me so that my writing sessions stayed productive. If you’re interested in learning more about overcoming rejection, check out my interview in Valorie Clark'sCollected Rejections.

What’s your revision process for draft two? Do you have any tips or writing exercises that help you revise? Share what works for you in the comments:

Next week, we’ll be diving into the best practices for writing the first act of a story.

Until then,

Kat