Rachael Wright

What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

My days are divided into two camps: writing a first draft and editing. While writing a first draft, I write from 9 am to 1 pm and aim for four thousand words. This is an exercise in both ignoring myself and immersing myself in the story. First drafts are unpolished, often terrible, but a quick way to get the entire story down on paper. After I’ve completed the word count for the day I will spend an hour or so working on my website, blogging, marketing or my social media accounts. If however, I am editing a draft then my days are much more structured. I edit a novel at least four times before it’s ready for my copyeditor. My first edits are largely done to correct plot holes and any glaring issues with the structure of the novel (i.e. too many secondary characters). After the first edit is completed I send the draft off to Beta Readers who send me their thoughts on the novel and any issues that they’ve seen. After the Beta Readers finish I begin adding layers of character development, adding a local flavor to the setting, flushing out adverbs, and superfluous words.

A typical day editing looks like this: 8:30 read through an entire chapter, making notes and determining what needs to be changed; 9:00-12:00 input changes into the Scrivener app that I work on, 12:30-1:30 short break for lunch, 1:30-4:30 research for novel (police procedures, layout of streets, read Greek newspapers) as well as preparing for tomorrow’s chapter. At 5:00 I leave to pick up my daughter and at this point I’m finished for the day, although I will print and read through a chapter in the evening, to prepare for tomorrow’s work.

How did your experience at CMU prepare you for your career?

What was your transition like from being a student to your current career position? 

The most difficult part of my transition was suddenly being my own boss. I was not hemmed in by deadlines but I also didn’t have professors that I could see multiple times a week to ask for assistance or to pick their brains about what was weak or needed work in my novel. But as I have had some distance from college, 6 years, I’ve found that I have to start becoming someone else’s mentor. I have to give away what I’ve learned and use it to shore up the next generation. It’s always more comfortable to be the mentee, but vastly unrewarding in the long term.

What advice would you give to incoming college students? 

It’s quite a challenge coming from home where your parents have always made sure your homework was completed, and that you ate a decent meal every night and went to bed at a decent hour. The sheer amount of freedom is very disorientating, at least it was to me and my friends, and it’s very challenging to find a new rhythm for yourself. My best investment was a planner, the paper kind. Write down every assignment ahead of time and always keep your syllabi. Have fun with your new freedom, and start to build friendships with your professors – especially those that are in your field of study.