Q & A with author Mark P.J. Nadon
Q: “What draft of your books are the hardest to write?”
A: There are some questions that make me stop and really think. This one happens to be easier to answer. Although years ago I might have said the first draft, because just finishing a book can be a challenge of its own, I don’t feel that way anymore. The first draft is my favourite. I can explore the world, learn about the characters, and do pretty much anything I want, and nobody but me will ever know it happened. I don’t have to think too much about my word selection, if I’m using the five senses, or whether a character is working in that moment.
The second draft is by far the hardest. It’s the first draft I send to someone to read over and offer feedback, so I want it to be the best story I’ve ever written, even if there are typos and plot problems. Not long ago I sent a story to a developmental editor and they chewed it up – they didn’t like it at all. It had plot holes and issues everywhere. The editor wasn’t wrong, it just isn’t fun to find out. And with every second draft I stop to think if this is another story I thought was good, but my alpha readers or editor will tear through it like the last rations in the apocalypse.
In the second draft I have to clean up sentences, make sure the plot elements are working, check every scene to verify I used the five senses, and on and on I go through that draft. Perhaps the hardest is checking that the characters feel different from one another and in a trilogy, that they’ve grown some but are still the same person as the character in earlier books. Keeping all the people and situations in my mind is a constant challenge, so I use software to help organize my thoughts, just to ensure I don’t lose complete control of a manuscript.
Curious about other Q & A’s?
Unmasking the origins of The Collective
Genre-Hopping: Confessions of a Restless Thriller Writer