Lesson 15: Editing

Draft Fast, Edit Later

“Consider not polishing the book until you’ve written at least one draft.”

James Patterson, MasterClass

If you edit as you go, you run the risk of getting attached to the great stuff you write that might ultimately end up not serving your story.

Keep Escalating

When things are getting interesting, don’t pause and change to something else. Keep escalating. Make it so the pages keep turning.

Different Perspectives, Multiple Drafts

Patterson writes as many as 9-10 drafts and doesn’t overthink it. He drafts quickly, constantly looking at the story from different angles.

“Write it again, write it again, write it again. Look at it sideways. Look at upside down…you should be considering every possibility.”

James Patterson, MasterClass

Your Changes are Not Mistakes, Each Draft is a Version of the Story

When you’re rewriting, it’s easy to think of the things you’re changing as mistakes. They’re not. Each time you write a story, you’re writing one version of it. A story can be told a multitude of ways. Changes to a story does not mean the previous version was wrong. It was just one way of telling it. Sometimes when you get to the end, you realize there is a better way of laying it out. But you have to write it down first to build on it later.

Break Editing into Pieces

If you’ve been in the editing phase for a long time, it can seem overwhelming when you don’t notice progress. Progress is marked by the number of tasks you get done. You have to break editing down into its pieces to notice the progress you’ve made.

“You can conquer the chapter. You can conquer creating that character. And then the next character. But if you look at the whole thing, it can be overwhelming,” Patterson explains.

One way of breaking the editing phase down could be:

1. First read through – developmental editing – reviewing & identifying overall problems, plot holes, logic.
2. Second read through – work through the list of overall problems you’ve identified in the first round, point by point
3. Third read through – Line edits (i.e., looking at pacing & word choice) & Proofing (typographical errors & formatting).

The above stages can be further broken down into their individual components and worked through one piece at a time.

Lesson 16: Working with a Co-Author

James Patterson’s collaboration process:

• Patterson has a big idea that he provides to his writers
• He checks in every 10 chapters or so to provide direction (i.e., if it’s going off course or if it’s going well)
• After his writers have finished the draft, Patterson will take it over and rewrite, then publish.

Lesson 19: Marketing

If you’re someone with varied interests that don’t intersect in any way, brand yourself. A brand is a relationship between the consumer and yourself. It’s an expectation the consumer begins to develop about your work. You can set that expectation to expect something different from you each time (i.e., if you would like to be writing in different genres or about different subject matters).

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Posts in Series:

1. MasterClass Notes: James Patterson – Part 1 – Passion & Habit
2. MasterClass Notes: James Patterson – Part 2 – Ideation
3. MasterClass Notes: James Patterson – Part 3 – Plotting
4. MasterClass Notes: James Patterson – Part 4 – Drafting
5. MasterClass Notes: James Patterson – Part 5 – Editing

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