Newsletter 15:Thursday 28th May 2015The Writing Process: Developing a Readable Manuscript for your own Use
Hello again.
I recently wrote on my blog about the
need for a writer to retreat to a different place to refresh and develop her
writing and her writing strategies. I am wondering whether it can happen in a
day. I am looking forward to Rachel Cochrane’s Day Retreat at our beautiful AucklandCastle. What I like about it is that it is just a day to write
– not necessarily
to workshop, share, network or any of the other things writers are pressed to
do these days.
I was thinking that the key to making
the most of such a day is preparation. This could be writing a note what you
want to achieve from the day. The notes might simply say.
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Fifteen hundred words on the current
novel or novella!
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Or Draft the short story about the
woman who began painting at the age of sixty.
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Or Draft prose to fill the gaps in my
existing narrative.
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Or it might just be Write poetry or
prose inspired by the castle setting...
In my case I intend
to produce for the day a perfect manuscript copy of the work up to date on my
next big project – novel set in the days following World War 2.
I have about 20,000
words – some still in draft, some
transcribed and edited and amended. I keep this in a plastic box alongside
crucial resources to drive on the story: maps, books, research notes. A
particular treasure in the box is a book of poems written by the man who
inspired me to embark on this story.
So today and
tomorrow I will assemble my writing so far into a
single coherent document that meets all the criteria for a manuscript that you
could submit to an editor or an agent or one of your first readers- so important
these days. You can do this at any stage of the writing after – in my view –
about 20.000 words. This might be a quarter
of a novel. It might be half a novella. It might be five short stories towards
a collection
Doing this refining exercise on your
own first pages makes you simultaneously think of your work in detail and as a
whole. It allows you to begin to see your novel though the eyes of an outsider –
crucial part of the creative process.
So, as part of my
preparation I thought I would put down here some thoughts on creating your
manuscript to a presentable level.
In the history of publication, we may
find examples of scrappy, ill-typed manuscripts on flimsy, tired paper wrapped
in tatty packages, which ended up being published and lauded as great
works. Daphne du Maurier was said to send her editor scrawled,
untidy half-legible manuscripts. Thomas Wolfe, too, needed his agent Max
Perkins to sort out the jumbled pages of his great American novels. (Wolfe
wrote standing up, leaning on the top of his fridge. But that’s another
story.)
But they were different days, of
patient editors and forbearing agents and leisurely publishing.
In these more urgent times, a new writer – with more technological resources - needs to optimise her or his chance of being read carefully by presenting an immaculate, business-like manuscript. To do this, the writer needs to ensure that there is no barrier of poor presentation to blind the sight of the hard-pressed publisher’s or agent’s reader.
In these more urgent times, a new writer – with more technological resources - needs to optimise her or his chance of being read carefully by presenting an immaculate, business-like manuscript. To do this, the writer needs to ensure that there is no barrier of poor presentation to blind the sight of the hard-pressed publisher’s or agent’s reader.
And nowadays this
applies now to creating your own high level working manuscript before putting
it through an independent publishing process. You can include some of the
features which will make it easier to upload to one of the publishing platforms.
If you develop your manuscript to meet the following basic points regarding your interim manuscript will set the pattern for a good clear manuscript that eventually will appear professional to an agent or editor. It will also provide the foundation manuscript for you to upload if you take the road to independent publication.
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Basics
Basics
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Use good-quality white paper. It’s more likely to survive being passed
from hand to hand. Or for your own use on-page edits and notes.
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Select a simple, clear typeface in black – no fancy work. Calibri or Arial
are good. I like Garamond for my independently published novels. I read
recently that Time New Roman looks old fashioned and could lead to your
manuscript being labelled as such.
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Use 12 pt. character size and 1.5 or 2.00 line spacing and only ever
use one side of the paper.
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Consistent numbering – top right hand is my favourite closely followed
by bottom centre.
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Collate together in loose pages and put them in a single card folder to
work on. (Numbering is crucial here. You could get the pages out of order.)
Layout
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Clear margins all round – widest on the right, for your own and others’
comments.
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Set your ruler to ten inches which will fit in to up loading criteria e.g.
for Createspace
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New chapter means new page,
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Begin new chapters six spaces down
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You can number and/or title each now chapter.
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In continuous text. indent the line to indicate new paragraphs
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No extra line-spaces between paragraphs. unless you want to indicate a
change of time or place in the narrative,
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So today and tomorrow I have briefed myself to
assemble my
drafted and transcribed sheet into this more refined form so that
on Sunday, at Rachel’s Castle Retreat. When I am there who knows?
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