How To Write a Novel: The 5 Draft Method

Draft 4 - The Grammar Draft

    Print Draft 3. Get your new red pen out and brew several pots of coffee. We will not be writing a whole lot from here on out. Draft 4 and Draft 5 together are the quickest drafts there are, and the most loathsome. Spelling, grammar and flow are what we are concentrating on. Run Draft 3 through a spell check before you print it. However, realize that when you write “The dog was prayed too four five ours” Spell check will say all is fine. So you have to catch that and make your edits so that the sentence is correct with “The God was prayed to for five hours.” Follow all your grammar rules here. All of them. If you need a rehash, go to your English book, or check out some online resources: http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/grammar/ or http://theweek.com/article/index/241295/

     You don't have to be a grammar expert (though it does help). You do, however, need to get as close as you can. Grammar errors stick out to editors, and every publishing house has one. They are paid, and trained, to catch your mistakes (except apparently for Stephanie Meyers' editor, who should be fired, and hung). I promise you though, if they find page after page after page of grammar errors, they will just kick it back to you and tell you to fix it and resubmit. Best to do all you can now to avoid that. There are exceptions (as with everything), and grammar falls under that too. When a character speaks, he is allowed to speak his or her own way. Grammar doesn't have to apply. Try to avoid typing in weird accents. Just write the correct word and explain he is speaking creole. Don' tr'n wry lie he spekin' the letturs yous writn' daown. Just describe the way he talks. He can still say things like “That ain't right to go on down to the creek like that, what with no shoes on and all.” Grammar doesn't have to apply to this character. Your narrative and non-speaking parts do, however. Once again: take your time. This is a highly important step.

    There are also online grammar checkers. And programs you can download. MicroSoft Word and some other text editors do have basic grammar checkers installed with them. You can check them out, just make sure the corrections are right, and not just because you missed a comma. The pre-installed grammar checkers have a knack for disallowing a rule (or allowing one to be broken) if you put enough commas in the sentence. Be smarter than that.

    Once your red pen edits are done, and you load it back into a new document for Draft 4, make your changes. Again, chapter by chapter, one at a time. Then, when you are all done, and everything seems so perfect, re-read it. Read every word like its the first time you've ever read it. Use your pen on a fresh print out. Because this time we are looking for flow. Every word should run right into the next without a question. There should be no thinking, just flow. If you have to read a sentence over more than once, circle it with the red pen. Keep reading.

    When you have completed the story, give the red pen and the manuscript to someone you trust, and preferably who isn't going to be that nice to you. You want them to mark on the pages. Tell them so. You want them to read the story, yes, but you also want them to circle any parts that either didn't make sense, or were confusing, or that they had to read more than once. This person should not be a parent, or a best friend. An English teacher, a co-worker, a classmate in an English or a creative writing class... someone that will be honest with areas in the story that were difficult to get through. You may need to print out multiple copies and give it to a few people that are willing to do so. Then put all the red marks on your copy when you get them back.

    Read and reread and reread again. Draft 4 is important as it is the one that will get your story read by an agent or publisher, or tossed. Take your time, read the story over and over. Page by page. Fix your red circles of confusion. Perhaps adding words, or rearranging the paragraph. Whatever works. Just make the pages seamless with one another. When that is all done and Draft 4 is complete. Take your well deserved break. Put it all down. Yes, for another week. The last break you have to take from this amazing novel and huge accomplishment.  Only one draft to go. Are you ready?