I set myself a routine and a process, which won’t come as a surprise to writers of The Novelry.

The line that became the opening sentence emerged through a process of ‘cut and paste’ – to find what the hell this book was about, and where to drop in hard and fast. Jonathon Myerson, who reviewed the book for The Independent, hated the published title, but he and his wife Julie who reviewed it for The Guardian, loved the opening line. I must have felt at some point the latter was a bit too on the nose. The working title for what was to become Becoming Strangers was The Last Resort. This was what I set down in July when I began: I had a premise which started out as pretty hokey in February 2001, but by July I’d been turning it around in my mind for a few months. I was heavily pregnant (due November) and had two boys under 5 at home in Brooklyn.

I had two in the drawer and I meant business. It was 19 years ago this month, July, that I set about writing my ‘proper’ first novel. But if you’re curious about how a rough draft has transformed for some of The Novelry’s own writers, we’ve got a few examples of the difference between first and complete draft for you to peruse!Īs I entered into the fourth draft of my current novel, set in Brooklyn where I lived happily for a few years at the turn of the century, I turned back to console myself that the redrafting process was ever the same, even in the glory days and checked my process for my first novel. Of course, the process is different for each writer, and indeed each book. But in the beginning, lots of writers have questions about just how different this initial draft will be from their second draft, fourth draft and – ultimately – final draft. They’re where a writer can work her ideas out, test out words, find answers, link scenes and get acquainted with their cast. Rough drafts, then, have huge value to the writing process. After a rough draft, we can also often find and fill plot holes, and answer questions that even we have as the writers. Often, getting your first attempt down on paper is a great way to uncover more detail about your characters so that when you’re writing your second draft, you truly know them. Even the difference between the first and second drafts is momentous, with characters changing genders, ages, or even disappearing altogether. The writing process can feel like a long one when you’re working on your rough draft, the final draft of a manuscript seems almost unfathomable.

Rough draft essay example