We all want our words to sparkle like diamonds, reflecting light out in a brilliant gleam of spectral fire that captivates our readers. However, just as diamonds are produced from rough rock, so our rough drafts must be processed before they will ever sparkle with fire.
The refractive index of a diamond creates its brilliance, which is the amount of light reflected back out of the stone. A diamond’s dispersive power is its ability to split white light into its component spectral colours. When professionally cut, a diamond acts as a prism, reflecting light out from its heart in exquisitely brilliant flashes. These flashes of spectral colours, known as fire, are only apparent after a rough diamond has been cut and polished by a craftsman.
A rough diamond is an ugly lump of unremarkable rock with a dull, battered external surface often covered by a gummy, opaque skin. It is anything but attractive. Do diamond cutters throw away these lumps of rock because they’re ugly? Then why drag our first drafts to the recycle bin? They may be ugly, but to a skilled wordsmith there are diamonds in there.
Have you any idea how much work is involved in finding and digging diamonds from the ground? Did you know that diamond cutters can study these rough stones for weeks before setting to work on them? How does that relate to writing? Just as a diamond cutter has no hope of ever producing a gemstone without first having a rough rock before him, so without a rough draft on the screen before us we have no hope of ever producing literary diamonds that will one day enthral and captivate our readers. Think about that the next time you drag words to the recycle bin.
When I sat down to write my first novel I became bogged down in chapter five. After some time, I realised I was getting nowhere. Thinking things through I came to the conclusion it was because I was always going back to chapter one and revising. Of course, that would lead to a revision of chapter two and usually chapters three and four. I’d do a bit more of chapter five but then I’d think of something else in an earlier chapter and go back and revise some more. I wound up with a spectacular first chapter, a damn good second chapter, a third chapter that needed work, a fourth chapter that was dire and a fifth chapter that made me want to give up. Of course, chapter six never got started. A diamond cutter working to a plan such as this would ruin his diamonds.
How I work now is simple – I write the first draft of chapter one and then put it aside. Then I write chapter two and put it aside. Then I write chapter three and put it aside. And so I continue until the first draft of the entire novel is finished. Only then do I take the time to study my ugly lump of rock. Then, once I can visualise the finished product, I make my plans and set to work on the cutting and polishing.
First drafts are not the time to concern yourself with technicalities like grammar and structure. It isn’t even a time to be bothered with spelling. It is a time to dig into your soul for rough diamonds. Close your metaphorical eyes, fall inside yourself and be there with your characters. Let your five senses breathe. Feel your story. If you’ll forgive the cliché, open your veins and bleed. Let your readers feel what is happening. Rain doesn’t fall from the sky; it trickles down your cheeks like tears. Tears of pain or tears of joy? It’s up to you. Live the experiences and flow with the story. Wander through your landscapes, completely engulfed in the experience. Write from your heart. Forget about what the words look like. You’re making spelling mistakes? Who cares? Coming out of your story to stare at spelling mistakes on a screen at this stage will only flaw your diamonds.
Of course, from a technical point of view, this means your first drafts will be dire. So what? Hemmingway, in his own inimitable way, put it very succinctly – ‘first drafts are shit’. However, this isn’t something to despair over. Quite the contrary. A completed first draft is a rough diamond sitting on the workbench before you, something you didn’t have before.
My advice to aspiring novelists is that once you’ve written the first draft of chapter one, move on to chapter two and keep going. If you think of something that needs to be changed in a previous chapter, scribble it down in a notepad and then forget about it. Get on with the story. You can go back and make changes later. Keep writing. Bend your back and dig until you have that lump of rock on the screen in front of you.
I know, I know, some parts will look so awful you will despair. Keep writing. There is a diamond in there which may not look very pretty, but it’s in there. Sit down every day and type. It is only determination and faithfulness that will dig out those diamonds from within you. Hard work? Oh yes. Writing isn’t for the faint hearted. But what about the rewards? Ever looked into an ideally cut diamond and had your breath taken from you? Beautifying and enriching the world takes work, whether it is a diamond or a novel.
So, you’ve finished your first draft. You have a rough diamond sitting in front of you. Doesn’t look like much, does it? What now?
Diamond cutting is the science of turning a rough stone into a precious gem. It requires specialised knowledge, tools and techniques. Rough diamonds are first examined to decide how best they should be cut. The overall shape of the diamond and its imperfections must be considered. How the diamond is to be cut is cautiously deliberated over. Once all these factors have been taken into account, a decision is made and the stone is marked. Great care is needed if the diamond is to be cleaved as a mistake can shatter the stone. The cleaver mounts the diamond in a holder, inserts a steel wedge into the groove, strikes sharply with a mallet and the diamond splits. Once cleaved, the diamond goes to the next phase of its production which is to be rounded or girdled. The diamond is placed in a lathe and it is slowly rounded into a cone shape. From the girdler the diamond has its facets cut into it. Finally it is polished. Great skill and care is necessary at every stage of a diamond’s production.
And so it is with our writing. How masterful are we with our craft? Are we wordsmiths or do we consider our first drafts God’s gift to the literary world? If the latter, we are not writers yet. After we’ve studied our rough diamond, it’s time to go to work. Work? Oh yes, the first draft was just the fun bit.
Perhaps our skills as wordsmiths are not where they need to be in order to produce brilliant diamonds from our rough drafts. That’s fine. The good news is that I believe all our talent as writers goes into the first draft. Turning those first drafts into polished diamonds isn’t so much a talent as a craftsman’s skill that can be learned and improved on with practice.
If you have difficulty getting your words to sparkle with fire, that doesn’t mean you have no talent, it simply means you need to hone your skills as a craftsman. Instead of dragging words to the recycle bin, why not lay your rough diamonds aside for the time being? You can always go back to them later. Learn what it is to be a wordsmith. Learn what it is to shape and cut and polish words. Your rough diamonds will still be there for you, waiting for the touch of the master’s hand.
Copyright © George Maciver. All rights reserved.
