Is reading your novel like trying to walk through a hoarder’s house?

I love to work on manuscript reviews.  When an author has a completed draft that they are willing to let an Editor Book Coach review, it signals their commitment to the writing process and to doing the best work they can.  They are serious about writing a good book.

As you may suspect, there tend to be patterns in early drafts, things that a lot of writers do, that we can all learn from.  One of these is akin to hoarding. 

If you’ve ever watched a reality show about hoarders or known one in real life, you will be familiar with the way, to varying degrees, it can be difficult to navigate inside their homes.  There is so much stuff that it blocks the path, or sometimes only allows you to walk through in a narrow passage.  You cannot see the whole room, because the furniture or knick knacks or boxes are in the way.  You cannot see out the windows, because they are blocked.  It is dark.  There might be beauty in the house, but you cannot tell, because it is obscured by the sheer volume of things.  Things that the owner cannot let go.

Sometimes writers are like hoarders. They want to cram LOTS of backstory into their novel, because the reader needs it, they think.  Sometimes the first version of a plot resembles a “choose your own adventure” with all the options taken.  There are too many details for the reader to pay attention to.  There are extra scenes which seem to have no purpose, but they are really important! There are so many characters, the reader needs a scorecard to remember their names or keep up with the relationships.

If this sounds familiar, do not despair!  Early drafts are where writers work out the story, figure out what the characters’ goals are, and literally find their way to the story they want to tell.  The trick is, that a writer, unlike a hoarder, has to be willing to let some things go. Let the plot shine by simplifying it.  Give the details that matter to the reader and shed those that don’t. Allow the beauty of your prose to be visible by removing the detritus that is overshadowing it.  Revision is the process of reorganizing, rewriting, and refining what you’ve done.  Like editing your closet or your home, it requires that some things go.  But it also means that what remains will be more useful, more beautiful, and more easily accessed by the reader.

If you have a finished draft—well done!  Your work is just beginning.