What to Keep When Editing Requires a Reset
The “Now What?” Months are here! In 2014, we’ll be bringing you advice from authors who published their NaNo-novels, editors, agents, and more to help you polish November’s first draft until it gleams. Author Cristina Alger tells us what to do when editing requires mass-deletion:
“So what did you think of my manuscript?”
“It was good.” Jenn smiled at as she took a sip of her coffee. And then, after a pause: “Have you ever heard the term ‘updraft’?”
I shook my head.
“An updraft is a basically a rough first draft, in which the author is just getting ideas onto the page. The term comes from throwing up. As in, you sort of just throw up on to a page. An updraft.” She smiled again.
I nodded, speechless. Had she just compared my manuscript to throw up? I was prepared to hear that my manuscript was boring, or badly written, or otherwise unpublishable. Frankly, I was grateful that Jenn, a well-known agent at a well-known literary agency, had bothered to read it at all and was willing to give me feedback. But … throw up?
cucumber-s
