Saving Grace officially entered the second draft phase on Tuesday, January 5, 2010.
It took three days to do the first reading and analysis, one-and-a-half days for each phase.
It had been my hope to move directly from analysis to second draft while still in Michigan.
When we left, I thought I had every file and document in a format I could use. Imagine my disappointment when I sat down to begin the rewrite. The documents were all there, waiting on my flash drive. But, alas. I couldn’t open them!
For a short time, I occupied myself with working up some of the alternate plot directions identified through first round analysis. Then, since the analysis calls for a week of brooding, I decided to … brood!
I thought a lot about the story.
I jotted notes about the story.
I brooded between visits with family and friends, trips to town, walks in a snow covered woods and working on Perfect Opportunities. When that was done, I forgot about the story. I put it out of mind as completely as possible.
So by the time I opened the Saving Grace journal yesterday and the first notations, it was almost like working on a brand new project.
The first step was to make all the changes marked in the read-through. Scenes marked to be deleted were deleted. I made notes on those paragraphs or sentences that were unclear, noted where expansion was necessary and were the pace needed to be picked up.
Then back to the beginning with a brand new document and essentially rewriting the story chapter by chapter. That work began with considering alternate beginnings and that continued through the second day of rewriting, as well.
Saving Grace officially entered the second draft phase on Tuesday, January 5, 2010.