Fiction, from the First Draft Forward: Manifest

By L.L. McKinney

Before we jump into this week’s topic, I want to take a moment to shine the spotlight on one of my Tweeps (Gotta love Twitter jargon). Carrie Bailey, @PeevishPenman ((Link http://twitter.com/PeevishPenman to @PeevishPenman)) , will soon be launching a podcast geared towards aspiring writers. Sound familiar? The show will cover information meant to help the ‘underpublished’ along on their journey. Follow along on Twitter for updates on the countdown to the first launch! I’ll be sharing a bit about what’s going on with that over the next few weeks as well.

Now then, on to some serious business. Gimme a W! Gimme an I! Gimme a P! What does it spell? Well, it doesn’t spell anything, but it stands for Work In Progress, and it’s a very good reason to get excited. Last week we touched on being our own cheerleaders for writing, getting ourselves fired up in the face of the negativity that the world will throw at us, if it hasn’t already. Always remember that no one wants this more than we do, so we have to be the catalyst for any excitement that could spread to others. One thing I recently discovered adds a ton of fuel that fire. It’s a simple concept with a fancy name, but it only takes one step to complete: manifest.

Webster says (I get advice from him quite often) that manifest, as a verb, means to display or show by one’s acts or appearance. To demonstrate or be evidence of. To prove. I’m going to take that a step further and say to prove to yourself. Where we are in the writing process, revising and rewriting our WIPS, is a pretty delicate place. We’ve come so very far, but it is here that we can clearly see—maybe for the first times—that we still have a long way to go. That realization is a daunting one, and if we don’t want to lose focus, we have to prove to ourselves that we can do this by manifesting our dream as reality.

What a mouthful, but it’s a lot easier than it sounds. I did it just last week. How? One step: print out your manuscript. Before your rewrite it, before you start editing it, before you change a single word or sentence, print it off. The whole thing, every last page. Not just a few pages here and there to take to your group or give to your friends, I mean page 1 – page whatever you ended on. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

While you’ve got the printer running, take a moment to fully grasp what you’re doing. I can say, from my own experience, that you are in for a treat. The elation that all of us felt when we typed out those last words, maybe THE END, pales in comparison to what’s in store. At least it was that way for me. I knew my first draft was finished over two months ago, but it’s just now registering. There’s a difference between knowing and knowing, as they say (No idea who They are, but I assume it’s the same Them that says everything else). You know you got an A on a test, but when you get it back you show it off anyway. You know you got what you wanted for your birthday, but when you open it you still do a happy dance. You knew those things, but they hadn’t settled in until you had proof. It’s the same thing with printing out your manuscript.

Looking at words on the screen does not even begin compare to holding your story in your hands. When I pull up my folder for Swayed all I can see is 23 icons staring at me, one for each chapter and the epilogue. Even if I combined it all into one document, I can still only look at a few pages at a time. That is a very limited view on something that’s taken up the better part of a year of my life. It’s the same with all of us, which is why I say print it out. And if you can, sit there while it happens. Watch as letter-by-letter, line-by-line, and page-by-page your hard work comes to life. When it’s done, take it in with every sense you possess. Feel the dying warmth in the pages from having been churned out by a machine. Pick it up and measure the weight of it against your palms, test the thickness between your fingers. Flip through the pages and listen to them flutter. Take in the scent of the fresh ink and the metallic aroma that accompanies newly printed documents. Don’t lick the paper or anything, but taste the sense of accomplishment and pride that lumps at the back of your throat. Swallow it and let it rest in your stomach. That proof I spoke on earlier? This is it, your dream manifested in the physical, not the virtual or the mental.

Once you’re holding the proof, it doesn’t stop there. Okay, I lied, there are one and a half steps. I know I’ve said this before and I’m saying it again, celebrate! What you’ve done in finishing your first draft is a significant marker in your life and in your career. You did it. We did it. We set a goal and we accomplished it, and writing a book is by no means a simple or easy endeavor. After I printed off Swayed, all 393 pages of it, I… well I stood there and marveled for a moment. I think I even cried a little (So I’m something of a sap, big deal). Then I called my mothers, I updated my status on Facebook, I Tweeted, I e-mailed people, I poked at friends on my instant messengers, I shared the news with anyone and everyone who would sit still long enough to listen, and even a few who wouldn’t. I jumped up and down, a few folks jumped up and down with me—excitement is infectious, remember—then I went and got the biggest Chipotle burrito ever made.

"It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever - the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it." - 
Vince Lombardi

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.