First Draft to Published

  It Wasn’t His Time Nine months after he began writing Such a Nice Boy Daren’s heart flatlined during a procedure to treat an arrhythmia.   Luckily, he was in a major hospital and a defibrillator had been placed on him, so all the doctor had to do was press a button. Time To Say More With Less A year after Daren began writing Such a Nice Boy he was laid off from what would be his final full-time “real” job.    With his free time he finished the first draft, a 144,000-word monster of a manuscript that went nowhere.   Note: the printed version weighs in at a svelte 76,000 words.   Daren worked with three editors who had him whittle Such a Nice Boy to its present length himself, the realities of the business. “For me,” said Krupa.   “I don’t like to send anything off without reading it over and over and making a half million changes.   Remember the percentages of a good book – 20 percent writing, 80 percent rewriting.   To me it’s all f...