The differences from one batter's hitting stance to another's can be subtle. His feet could just be slightly more open or more closed. The barrel of the bat might be held at a barely different angle, or just touch higher or lower.
Still, no two batters approach a turn at the plate the exact same way.
Now, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably expect me to follow up on that with, “no two writers approach writing their manuscripts the exact same way,” or something like that.
And while that statement would be true, I've written about it before. So I'm going to go a different direction with this.
No ONE batter approaches a turn at the plate the exact same way, and no ONE writer approaches a manuscript the exact same way.
If someone plays baseball for more than a couple years, he will change his batting stance over time. Sometimes this comes from learning more about the game itself, sometimes it comes from learning from coaches or other players, and sometimes it comes from the physical changes of aging. But those who understand the sport will be able to find some alterations between a player's approach at the plate when they are 20 years old and when they are 25 or 30 years old.
There is a parallel to writing, and I'm discovering it while working on my second novel. Though I am approaching The Jewelry of Grace in a similar way to how I wrote The Pride of Central, it is not exactly the same.
For instance, I am still using the “writing from the middle” concept. But with The Pride of Central, I started with the scenes were clear in my mind, whether they were key moments or smaller, transitional scenes. This worked, but I'm altering this a bit for The Jewelry of Grace. I am still hopping around the manuscript as I write scenes, but this time, I am going through by the order of importance to the story. I may or may not have a perfect picture in my mind for when my characters find the first of the titular jewels, but I will feel better having those scenes typed up when I work on the connecting scenes between the high points.
Is this way better? No, but it's not worse. It's just different, and the way I'm more comfortable with for this manuscript.
In most other ways, at least so far, I am still following the same pattern I did for The Pride of Central. But there are other ways an author can adjust. Write one story without an outline, use pages of detailed outlines for the next. Use a third-person point of view for one, write in first person for the next. Use only human editing for one, run the next through every editing software you can find. Promote one through free outlets only, take a chance on the next one and buy that table space at conferences and conventions.
There is no need to marry yourself to one way of doing each manuscript. Your stories are different from each other, and you are a different writer now than when you sat down to write your first novel. Your approach is allowed to change too.
Next week: Fading to black
Two weeks from now: Looking past your labels