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308 Part V: Polishing Your Product: Revising and Editing
Restructuring Your Story: Second Draft
In the second draft you start shaping the structure of your story, tying plot lines
together, considering your timeline and addressing any serious problems.
Working on the overall structure
At this stage you review all the material you have and think about whether it
needs to be divided into parts, sections and chapters.
Thinking about the following issues can help you create a satisfying sense of
symmetry:
✓ Does a major change of location occur part-way through the book? If so,
think about dividing the book into a separate part for each location.
✓ Does a change in point of view exist? Again, look at how many points of
view you have and in what order, and see whether you can divide the
typescript into a pattern of alternating points of view.
✓ Do you make a major leap or several leaps in time? Again, dividing the
book into parts may work.
✓ Do you have a number of linked stories? If so, see whether you can link
them via an overall ‘bridge’ story (as I describe in Chapter 22).
After you’ve decided on your structure, you can work on the material you
have to make it fit.
Inevitably, at this stage you find yourself
✓ Cutting whole scenes
✓ Writing in new scenes you realise you need
✓ Shortening scenes that go on for too long
✓ Extending scenes that are too short or undeveloped
✓ Moving whole scenes and chunks of the story around
These tips can help you through this process:
✓ Keep track of the scenes by making a grid or using index cards you can
shuffle, with each scene or chapter written on them.
✓ If you have a number of plot lines, you may like to isolate each plot
thread and look at each one on its own. This often shows that some
threads are weaker than others and need strengthening.