writing

As I am finishing up my outline for the second draft, I thought I would do a follow up on my post about outlines (Discovery Writing v Outlines – Have an Ending in Mind) and talk about my own method.

Rough sketchings

Once I’ve got the initial idea for a story and explored it for some time, doing research and reading articles to prompt possible directions to take it, I then jot down some of the key points I think need to happen in the story.

I then space these events out and think about other scenes that could link them together and would fit with the pacing I want. I don’t mind if it is all very rough and fuzzy in terms of details, it’s just to put together enough scenes for a decent length book.

Refining

Now I have that rough linking of events and scenes, I then try to put a bit more flesh on those bare bones. Each scene I expand to about 4 or 5 bullet points of what should happen in them, and once I’ve done that for every scene I will then look at the order of them and remove/add more scenes until I’m happy with what I’ve got.

This is still not very refined, but serves as a nice blueprint to do the first draft from, though I do not worry if I deviate from it as I’m doing it.

Revised draft

When I’m writing my first draft I’ll make little notes about changes I think I may want to make for the next draft, or changes to themes or story arcs. Once I’ve finished it and taken a brief break from the story I’ll then go back to my first outline.

Again I do not go into huge amount of depth with each scene, this second pass is there to incorporate all I’ve learnt from the first draft and incorporating my notes to make sure story arcs flow correctly from scene to scene and the whole things is consistent.

With this revised outline done, this is then my template for the second draft. I will copy across text from the first draft as I go but with substantial changes, additions and removal of some of it.

Flexibility

The key point for me with this whole process is to be flexible, by not doing massively detailed outlines and keeping them sparse I’m giving myself the freedom create as I write, as well as being happy to add/remove scenes as I draft as well depending on how I think things are going.

More changes will still be required after the second draft, but I know I will have a more solid template to work from and which I can tweak and changes to make it even better as I go along.

As I want to talk not just about the progress of my books but also the process of writing them, finishing the first draft seems like an apt time to talk about them in general.

To me the most important role of first drafts is this:

They tell you what is wrong with your story.

This is awesome. Actually it’s not awesome, it’s amazing, but it can only be done once you’ve got a completed first draft in front of you.

I work from an outline, which has about four or five bullet points for each chapter/section outlining what should happen in each. But it cannot tell me whether the story works, or if the characters are right, or if the pacing is all over the place (it is). You can only judge that once you have a whole story in front of you.

Sure you can spend ages on each chapter in your first draft, making the grammar and prose amazing as you go along, but to me that is wasted time. At that point you don’t know how much you will need to change so focusing on those issues is just wasting time. Get that first draft finished and you will have an overview of the whole story and a much better idea of what you need to do going forward.

Remember that story is everything with a book, get that nailed down first you can worry about the details later. It’s no good having wonderful prose if the story is rubbish, or moves as fast as dried cement.

They help find your characters voices.

Sometimes characters jump full formed into your mind, complete with how they speak and act. The rest of the time that will evolve as your write each draft and put them into situations they have to react to. A first draft that focus on dialogue and story can help build those distinctive voices you want because you have time writing them and getting a clearer picture of who they are in your head.

Having your characters worked out also feeds back into your story, as your characters evolve you may find the story you had planned no longer works with the personalities you have now given them.

This is great.

Embrace this and change the story as needed to fit them because it will make both stronger. You will have a story that moves with characters and characters actions that fit with the personality you have given them.

So coming to the second draft you will hopefully have a much better picture of the characters you are writing and be able to feed that into it, and also make your story longer as a result.

They let you suck.

This may be more important than either of the two points above. First drafts will be bad, they are for almost every single writer live today and who has ever lived. Sure they be some exceptions but they’re the special cases. For most terrible, cringe-worthy and clichéd first drafts are part of the process of every book they write. It is them getting ideas down, getting a story finished and then making it better.

I often see budding writers on the internet saying how worried they are that what they are writing is bad, or sucks, or isn’t worth continuing with. Ignore that voice, kick it into the back of the closet in your mind and lock it away. Take your chance to just write what you want (though don’t go insane, remember the story you are meant to be telling), and get it done.

Be proud that you have finished something, and that is important, but remember you then have to make it good. First drafts may be a chance to get the story down and see what needs changing but things will need changing. First drafts should be for your eyes, and maybe a few trusted people whose advice you value, and no one else’s!

You still have to make it good.

So go and finish your first drafts, embrace their bad stories, learn from them, and then get on with finishing the book to the absolute best of your abilities.