Looking for the flow

One of my key tech­niques when I am approach­ing the com­ple­tion of a man­u­script is a one day read through and re-write. I did this yes­ter­day. It works like this. I got up early—you will see why—and bring up the com­plete text of my man­u­script (in this case 263 pages) on my com­put­er screen. Then I start read­ing and rewrit­ing. What kind of rewrit­ing? It can be every­thing from a com­ma (add or sub­tract) the chang­ing of a word, rephras­ing, and of course cut­ting. I am pay­ing atten­tion to the log­ic. The arc of the plot. I pay atten­tion to the nar­ra­tive log­ic. I engage with all the char­ac­ters, their actions, lin­go, and quirks. And so forth.

The key to all this is that until I fin­ish the book I do not stop. Yes­ter­day, for exam­ple, I start­ed at about eight AM, and did not fin­ish until after nine PM. Of course, I took breaks. Short ones. I am seek­ing a com­plete immer­sion in the book—first page to last—going—to use the cliché—with the flow. Of course, I am look­ing to see if there is a flow, if it is all con­nect­ed, if there are gaps, lulls, contradictions—in short, if it works as a novel.

There have been times when doing this I make a sud­den swerve, dis­cov­ery, sur­prise. (Remem­ber Robert Frost: “If there are no sur­pris­es for the writer, there are no sur­pris­es for the read­er.”) I love such moments.

One thing in par­tic­u­lar I want more from this process beyond all else. If—and it does not always happen—if I feel a swell of emo­tion with the book’s conclusion—only then will I believe I have done some­thing decent. If not…. Back to search­ing and rewrit­ing the problem.

And anoth­er day—full day, long day—with the book.