Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

I have been working on this particular MS for 9 years. Oh lord was it that long ago? It is not my first novel attempt. Technically it was my second. It was my first attempt at fantasy and I found it hard. Now this ms has been through many iterations and reinventions. The first attempt was a bit YA in feel and tone. Not well crafted or written either for that matter. I was starting out. I remember the earlier drafts had about six chapters before the action happened. I had the two characters starting out in Canberra, their trip to Scotland, activities in Scotland etc. Lord what a waste of time.

I was learning my craft. Those chapters came out. As the years went by, and I revisted the story, I added things, I changed things and I refined things. I had the first few chapters assessed and got a bone crushing critique. Later, when I thought I should bin it, I sent it for an MS assessment and workshop (Envision). There I learned to do a few things to enhance it, but the greatest lesson was not to throw it away. It had potential.

I did more work on it. I gave to people to read and got feedback. Then one day last year I sent it to an editor, who has read other MSs of mine but hadn’t seen this one. Well of course it was rejected, but I got something very important and quite rare in my opinion. I got feedback, exciting feedback and compliments. This really inspired me to revist the MS again.

So this year, incorporating feedback and discussions with the editor, I revised the ms. There were some really funny things in there, things and habits and quirks that have been with me for 9 years and that I hadn’t recognised even though I had been revisiting every couple of years of so.

For instance, over use of exclamation marks!!! How I hate them so why were they there?
The use of colourful speech attribution instead of ‘said.’ At times I even had, ‘she exclaimed’ as well as using the exclamation mark. I used many attributions that are quite acceptable in a category romance but not I guess in other fiction. They look quite funny, eg ‘ She enthused.’

The overuse of adverbs. I had a terrible lot of them.
Saying things twice in different ways. Sort of like. She walked into the room, threw the book down and slammed herself into a chair. She was angry.

Like no kidding she was angry. I had shown it quite well in aciton but had to add in case you didn’t get it that she was angry. So there was a bit of that through out the story.

I gently peeled 10-15,000 words from the MS. I was worried. Had I lost something of my character, taking away her little mishaps?  The character, particularly in the early part of the book , was coming across too YA. I needed to mature her. I did this a bit in the tone of her thoughts and dialogue and I got rid of some actions, which I deemed were childish, or made her appear immature. In the end, I didn’t really alter her character but it did mature her I think.

Then I reread the whole thing and sent it to beta readers. Ones who hadn’t read it before. That was very useful.  It is difficult to view your own work with objectivity, though I am learning. Reading is subjective. So two people can have similar or dissimilar reactions. Both lots of feedback were useful because it allowed me to target areas where I hadn’t quite addressed the issue or I had created new issues. As I write this I realise I left the burger and fries and the pizza references out. Darn.

Revising the MS after the feedback was difficult. I intended to use the five days I had off over Easter but got sick. The enthusiasm died a bit. Also some negative feedback plagued me. When push came to shove, I had a crisis of faith in myself. I had to push through it.  I think in the end I made the MS better. I’ll find out eventually because I sent it off. It may not find a home there but I think it is a better peice of work and it will find a home eventually.