Second Draft Miracle

There's something wonderful about being able to write when you know exactly what's going to happen. It allows you to think more about what you're writing now, rather than "where the heck do I go with this next?"

Some would argue that is what plans are for. But for me, I do a first draft which is mostly worry and "good god, what have I done". Then I get to the end, and I rather pleasantly know my characters, and have a plot.

But there's something strange about second drafts. Sometimes, there are big problems in the first draft that have to be corrected. Logically speaking, you don't know if your corrections are going to work - you just know that they're fixing the current problem. How then, is it that the corrections work themselves out? How can removing an entire scene, which would have effected the MC in a variety of ways, and driven the plot in a variety of ways, not actually change the book so much that you end up with another first draft?

This happened to me recently - I realised that I had a scene I didn't need. I cut the scene, wrote some other stuff. Not once was there any guarantee that the other stuff would bring me directly back into the plot line, but it managed to. I've been a little perplexed as to how it worked out so well.

I think it comes from my changing of my MC's main motivation.

At the end of the first draft, I knew my MC and her motivation didn't fit. Her motivation didn't drive her to do what she was doing by the end of the book. So I went and changed it, to fit her actions at the end of the book.

This new motivation not only drives her to those actions in the climax, but keeps her on task for the rest of the plot line. There is no other way she can go, given her circumstances, who she is as a person, and her motivation.

Neat, huh? I was quite pleased with this revelation, and quite heartbroken by the fact it means that I've got to go in search of motivation in another WIP. But this revelation provides a tool for fixing things, and that is always useful.

So when you know how things are going to turn out, and you know who your characters are, make sure their motivations are going to drive them towards the appropriate actions. If they are of a certain character, that character, paired with the right motivation, will keep them on track.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Coming Back

You may have noticed the odd quiet hanging around here of late. That is mainly due to the fact that, well, I've been writing a first draft, and it does tend to rather consume one's life.

So. I have mentioned my writing process before, but here's something else that starting a new project taught me. I may be getting just a little bit better.

Why? Well, this time round, there was a certain level of detachment and experience. I knew when I did things that were wrong, I knew when I had to go back and fix things. But I knew that as I wrote it, which has never happened for me before. It's always been the process of getting incredibly attached to something, then not being able to see it's flaws until a month afterwards.

This time round, I expected it's flaws. I still have a little voice inside my head informing me that "this is crap, this is crap, this is crap". I have ignored it thus far, and will continue to do so. But it's there, which means I'm on the look out for mistakes. I'm making notes in my head as I go, I'm still loving the story, but looking at it with a much clearer perspective then before.

Frankly speaking, I'm gearing myself for the next haul. The first draft took me 20 days to write, and it's not entire crap. this is always a good start. Over the next two days, I go through, make notes on character, plot, motivation, sub-plots - pull it apart and and analyse it, as it were.

Then we start on the second draft. And by the end of that, I should have something that's not embarrassing. Still needs a lot of work, but you get the idea.

So yes. I'm back. :) It feels wonderful, a bit like work sometimes, but satisfying work.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Multidrafting! (Or the Most Insane Fun you can Have With a First Draft)

I have never looked forwards to a blog post with more anticipation. Here goes.

This is how I approach the topic with multiple drafts - generally with much dancing and skipping around in happiness. This approach may turn some people green, but it is how I do it.

The first time I ever wrote an entire, original novel, I approached writing like this: write what ever comes to your brain, fix it afterwards. This is all very well and good, as long as you don't mind at least 6 total rewrites (I kid you not. And by rewrite I mean starting from page one on a blank sheet of paper).

Another method I have devised, which seems to work better for me involves three stages: Planning, writing, and fixing.

Planning, for me, consists of knowing what happens at the first major turning point, knowing my characters, and that's it. Nothing more - otherwise it just kills the story for me. It must also be noted that I do a lot of "percolating" before hand, where I think about the story and the characters non-stop for about a month. Some would call that planning in the head, but I think that's different. Planning requires structure, and there is no structure to my thoughts. They just... are.

Then I sit down, and write to the first turning point. I know what this turning point is, and I don't worry about the quality of writing to start off with (this is we the other drafts come in later). I don't really worry about world building either - if I have something fantastical/out of the ordinary that I have to describe, and don't know how to, I'll do something like this

(Insert description of slum here).

I do this because I know any attempt to describe it will be crap, unless I take a significant amount of time and put a significant amount of thought into writing it. There isn't place for that in my first drafts - it slows me down, and it makes writing hard.

After I reach the first turning point, I stop, and think about my second turning point and end. By this stage, I know my world and my characters, so I think about where I want both of them to end up. I think about potential conflict between characters. And then I sit down and write. And write, and write, and write. I don't describe anything that's too hard, I do a terrible job of the show don't tell rule, and my writing is generally atrocious.

But that doesn't matter - as long as the character motavations make sense, and the plot keeps going, all is good. (First time I wrote The Manda, I ignored both these things. Thus the 6 total rewrites)

Then comes the fixing : I look through the book, try and make sure I get rid of any plot holes, any character discrepancies. Large chunks, especially the middle, will be re-written. This is the second draft. I still don't bother with the writing all that much.

Now we're into third draft territory. This is where I sit down, realise no-one else is going to be able to understand this, and go through the entire thing slowly, chapter by chapter, filling in all the descriptions I left out, doing all the research necessary.

Then I leave it. And come back to it. This is the fourth draft - it isn't a rewrite like the others, but a revision. I strike out all the descriptions that hold the story back, rewrite the ones that don't work. By this stage, it's about ready for Beta readers.

They will find a heap of problems with it, I'll go and fix it, and the whole thing will start over. By the end of the Beta revision, I am done.

And that, for me, is multi drafting. Each draft has the possibility of extending into multiple versions of itself - for example, I may have three second drafts, each for a major plot hole or character inconsistency.

But for me, multi-drafting presents me with an immense amount of freedom. I can stuff up some stuff while I get the other stuff right. I'm only concentrating on one thing at a time (notice also that I start with the hardest things - plot and character - and work my way down to concise sentence building) It won't work for everyone, but I find it immensely helpful.

Enjoy creating~

Sian