Draft 1, 2, 3 -- What I do for each draft of my books
I've had a blog topic quest -- what do I do for each draft of my books? I thought I'd better post on it now, before I forget what I did. Which with the way my brain is right now is completely within the realm of possibility. Heck, I'm even having trouble finishing a sentence. All of my nouns have crawled under brain cells to hide.
A typical sentence from me right now goes something like this: "Derek, have you seen my . . . . " (five-second wait) . . . "keys?" I can visualize what I want to say, but I just can't think of the word and get it out for the life of me. Though it makes me feel a lot better that Ilona Andrews blogged on this recently, and her nouns have flown the coop as well. It's kind of like when your computer is running programs in the background and everything slows down. My brain is working double-time on the book(s), and little is left for basic communication skills.
Or basic coordination skills. Like "remove head from open door space, THEN slam door." Yeah, I got that one backward last week. At least the bruise on my forehead has gone away now.
Okay, back to the blog topic.
So far so good on writing a book from start to finish in six months. November and December were for the first draft. Done. January and February are for the second draft. Going good. I'm on Chapter 5 already. March and April are for the last draft/polish. My actual deadline for Con & Conjure isn't until June 1. So I have a pad built in, but I'm determined not to use it.
The first draft was for getting the story down. It's not supposed to be pretty, it's just supposed to be on the screen. And some chapters came to me out of sequence. Okey-dokey, fine. Normally I don't roll like that, but for the purposes of getting the story down, I went with the flow. BTW -- NaNoWriMo does wonders for your writing focus and speed. If you're a writer and didn't do it this year, do it next year. I can't recommend it enough.
I'm now on the second draft. That means smooth out the story, get the chapters in order, and fill in those plot potholes. Anyplace that I made notes to myself and moved on during the first draft has to be written now. I'm not cutting myself any slack on this. The only thing I'm letting slide are character descriptions and names -- I like to do some careful pondering with those. Those are for the final draft. It's during the next two months that the story will assume its almost final form.
The third & final draft will be for consistency, payoff, and polish. If I say a character has green eyes in Chapter 2, and grey eyes in Chapter 20 -- fix it. If I implied in an earlier chapter that a character will be doing something at a later point in the book -- they'd better do what they're supposed to do. If you put a gun on the mantle early on, somebody better shoot somebody else later on. I also think of this as "don't leave any loose plot threads dangling."
And then there's polish. Make absolutely certain that you use exactly the words that you want to use, and cut out any unnecessary words, sentences, or paragraphs. I have a tendency to repeat myself, or say the same thing two different ways. Slice, dice, and tighten.
Then I'll send the manuscript to my agent (who's also an amazing editor) -- and hold my breath.
A typical sentence from me right now goes something like this: "Derek, have you seen my . . . . " (five-second wait) . . . "keys?" I can visualize what I want to say, but I just can't think of the word and get it out for the life of me. Though it makes me feel a lot better that Ilona Andrews blogged on this recently, and her nouns have flown the coop as well. It's kind of like when your computer is running programs in the background and everything slows down. My brain is working double-time on the book(s), and little is left for basic communication skills.
Or basic coordination skills. Like "remove head from open door space, THEN slam door." Yeah, I got that one backward last week. At least the bruise on my forehead has gone away now.
Okay, back to the blog topic.
So far so good on writing a book from start to finish in six months. November and December were for the first draft. Done. January and February are for the second draft. Going good. I'm on Chapter 5 already. March and April are for the last draft/polish. My actual deadline for Con & Conjure isn't until June 1. So I have a pad built in, but I'm determined not to use it.
The first draft was for getting the story down. It's not supposed to be pretty, it's just supposed to be on the screen. And some chapters came to me out of sequence. Okey-dokey, fine. Normally I don't roll like that, but for the purposes of getting the story down, I went with the flow. BTW -- NaNoWriMo does wonders for your writing focus and speed. If you're a writer and didn't do it this year, do it next year. I can't recommend it enough.
I'm now on the second draft. That means smooth out the story, get the chapters in order, and fill in those plot potholes. Anyplace that I made notes to myself and moved on during the first draft has to be written now. I'm not cutting myself any slack on this. The only thing I'm letting slide are character descriptions and names -- I like to do some careful pondering with those. Those are for the final draft. It's during the next two months that the story will assume its almost final form.
The third & final draft will be for consistency, payoff, and polish. If I say a character has green eyes in Chapter 2, and grey eyes in Chapter 20 -- fix it. If I implied in an earlier chapter that a character will be doing something at a later point in the book -- they'd better do what they're supposed to do. If you put a gun on the mantle early on, somebody better shoot somebody else later on. I also think of this as "don't leave any loose plot threads dangling."
And then there's polish. Make absolutely certain that you use exactly the words that you want to use, and cut out any unnecessary words, sentences, or paragraphs. I have a tendency to repeat myself, or say the same thing two different ways. Slice, dice, and tighten.
Then I'll send the manuscript to my agent (who's also an amazing editor) -- and hold my breath.
posted by Lisa Shearin at
6:37 AM
6 Comments:
That's pretty much what I do. Only, this time, I started on the Weed & Polish and discovered little holes all over the place and realized scenes were seriously flip-flopped. Oy, bigger unexpected mess. It looked so nice in my head! It turned into a Weed & Patch instead. the good news is it really didn't put me behind. (((My new baby did that!))) Once I fixed everything, the rest has been smooth sailing.
Ever run into stuff like that?
Ditto about the babies. My baby is almost nine. Wish I could do NaNoWriMo but between her, working and homeschooling (which my wonderful hubby does most of), I'd need about 6 more hours in each day. I wonder what the diurnal cycle is on Mars? Maybe I'd sign on to colonize it.
5000 words a week is a good week for me. I love the weeks when I can get 5000 words in.
Great way to write.
I'm just so relieved that every other writer forgets the names for things. (Nouns...) Or has to stop and think what they are doing or how to do something.
A typical sentence from me right now goes something like this: "Derek, have you seen my . . . . " (five-second wait) . . . "keys?" I can visualize what I want to say, but I just can't think of the word and get it out for the life of me.
I do that more mornings than not. Most often in response to "What cereal do you want this morning?" If you want me to think of the full and proper name of a cereal in a timely manner, you should really wait until after I've eaten my cereal. By then the names have woken up. {Amused Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
That does sound like a good way to write and revise. It sounds methodical, but not too much. {Smile}
Unfortunately, Mars's days are approximately 23 1/2 hours long. Do not ask me how i know that. That particular fact stuck for reasons of it's own. {smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
This seems to be a popular method of drafting novels! I do mine that way, too. The first draft is where I build the story. I think of the second draft as a structural revision--any part of my story-building which needs structural work gets hit in the second draft. The third draft is all paint and wallpaper and making things pretty.
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