So draft 2 of my novel is now complete. Which is good news for me. A few people have asked me what the process is and how it all fits together. It reminded me that there is some excellent material in an episode of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe on the subject. At some point during the run of Screenwipe Charlie had a special episode which just focused on writers. It featured a really great set of writers: Paul Abbot (State of Play, Shameless), Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain (Peep Show), Russell T. Davis (Doctor Who, Queer as folk), Tony Jordan (Eastenders, Life on Mars, Hustle), Graham Linehan (The IT Crowd, Black Books, Father Ted). There is some strong language here by the way, but it's worth it.

At one point they did talk about multiple drafts: (2 minutes 40 seconds, Paul Abbot, Graham Linehan, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain and then Tony Jordan)



One of the most crucial things to get right when writing is dialogue. This from Tony Jordan is spot on: (50 seconds)



There is a scary thing about writing, which is also addressed really well here. It's tremendously hard work, and it's nowhere near as enjoyable as you hope. But at least they are in the same boat as you: (2 minutes 58 seconds, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Russell T. Davis, Tony Jordan and then Russell again)



And finally, they were asked if they had any advice for writers. I've been accused here of constantly going on about how important it is to start. Russell T. Davis points out how important it is to FINISH!: (2 minutes 34 seconds, Tony Jordan, Sam Bain, Paul Abbot, Graham Linehan, back to Tony Jordan, and finishing with Russell T. Davis)



Also I love Graham's analogy for writing there.

Anyway my second draft is complete. What happens next you might ask? Well now 6 lovely people, and me again, get to read it and tell me what they think. And then I decide if I agree with them or not and then comes draft 3. See I told you it took a long time. But I watched Russell T. Davis telling me to finish when I finished the first draft, and I watched him tell me to finish again now when I wrote the second.

And I'm going to get there, I am quite determined.