DRAFTING

After the notebook - drafting. A notebook is the writer's dumping ground for random thoughts and scribbles, and the first draft marks the next stage in the creative process. These days some writers - maybe most - write their first draft on a PC or laptop. But there are others, including Patrick Gale, who stick to the traditional pen and paper method when developing their early ideas.

What seems sad to me is that with fewer writers using the old school approach, there will be fewer chances to see a first draft in all its muddled glory. (Track changes just aren't the same.) Shakespeare may never have blotted a line but most writers blot and scratch out at will, and a first draft is fascinating to read.

Case study. Charles Dickens. Here is the first page of A Tale of Two Cities...

I love this - it's like watching him thinking. Of course, had Dickens had access to a laptop, he would probably have written about 97 more novels. (Though there are those who think he would have been writing soaps or screenplays, who knows?) But in any case, there it is. He didn't, and we are the richer for it.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has Dickens' whole manuscript for A Tale of Two Cities up on its website.   And you can also access it through the Penguin English Library.