On the Completion of a Manuscript

April 8, 2009 by maureen.ulrich.

Last Friday I dropped off a draft of my sequel to Power Plays at Coteau. It was a busy week in all respects, and I would have liked to have proofread it one more time.

It is an honour to be able to walk through the doors of a publishing house and place a 74000 word manuscript in the hands of the managing editor. What a difference from sealing Not Just a Boy’s Game in an Xpress Post with a cover letter in July 2006 and sending it to Coteau, saying to myself “If it gets rejected again, I’m going to self-publish.”

I have done two revisions, and with each one, I am happier. I cut away about 4500 words from the first draft, even though I added a few scenes and rearranged others. For me the revising process is the most fun. I get a feeling of satisfaction when I lop off three or four paragraphs of  “drivel.” If there’s a line of dialogue I don’t like, I get rid of it. It’s sort of like trimming the fat off a piece of steak.

I’m not sure what Coteau will think. In some respects I think this manuscript is superior to its predecessor. But Not Just a Boy’s Game/Power Plays had eight years to evolve. The sequel – as yet unnamed – was written in three stages. I wrote two chapters in February 2008, one chapter in May 2008, and the rest from October to February. Not counting plays, I have never written so many words so quickly.

And the trick for me is to give myself permission to write drivel. When I’m in the midst of drivel, I know it’s drivel, but I just keep telling myself, “I can always cut it later. Maybe something good will come out of it.” I also jumped ahead and wrote large chunks of significant events. I didn’t know how I was going to condense six weeks of Jessie’s life, but I was amazed at how easily it happened.

Now the waiting begins. Will they or won’t they? That is the question.

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