The Evolution of a Book from Draft to Publication: The “Hot Mess” Macroevolution

“If the Angel deigns to come, it will be because you have convinced her, not by your tears, but by your humble resolve to be always beginning: to be a beginner.”

— Ranier Maria Rilke

I’ve shared before that after a two-year stop-and-start with my cozy mystery book, I finally put the pedal to the metal this summer and finished the first draft. I’ve learned it doesn’t matter how many Agatha Christie books you’ve read, or dense texts about how to write a mystery, it’s daunting to jump into another entirely different genre of writing. It felt a bit like teaching tap dance for the first time coming from a ballet background, taking lots of tap classes and learning from videos. I knew enough to move my legs the right way, but putting the steps together well enough to create a dance was another thing altogether.

Coming in at about 230 pages, I sent the completed draft off to my friend and editor in September. My editor is someone whose edits I respect and trust, and I knew this would be a “developmental” edit, which means the focus is on the big picture: story, character, scene, pace, and coherence. Needless to say, I was anxious for her response, and when we met after she had finished it, she said, “This is a good book. And, it’s a hot mess.”

She then went on to clarify what she meant (which she only said in this manner because we are friends). Did it hurt my feelings? Sure, it did. I thought the book was reasonably good, and I was pretty sure I hadn’t switched murder victims, or some other major flaw like that. But, the more she explained, the more I knew her suggestions were things I already knew weren’t right. Intuitively, I knew exactly what she was talking about and her recommendations made perfect sense. The key was in being open enough to own that, and let go of some of the defensiveness about my “precious baby”. 

So, back to the first draft I went, and along the way I managed to embrace the time-worn notion of the inherent messiness of a first draft in fiction. And I don’t mean air-kiss, I mean full-on bear hug. That whole section about Manny in South Florida had to go, no matter how much fun I had writing it. Cece, the main character, needed a little more “oomph”. I went back in, kept changing, and kept learning.

Now, she is editing my third draft. The tap dance that began with the basic shuffle-ball-change step is now becoming more fine-tuned, a little more nuanced—and I continue to learn. We shall see where the next round of edits takes me.