R. L. Stedman

Writer

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How to Improve Your First Draft – Beauty and Murder

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After Your First Draft

Finishing the first draft is a massive milestone; an exercise in tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness. Word after word joining chapter after chapter, until finally you have enough content to make a book.

 

writer's notebook

  • The good news?

For me, the first draft is the fun part, where the story-telling happens.  I’m not bound up with grammar or word-appropriateness or even too much plot. In the first draft, I am feeling my way into the story.

  • The bad news?

The hard work is just about to start.

Beauty and Murder

So this is what I do.  At the end of the draft one – which takes anywhere between six weeks and five years, depending on the number of words and time and circumstances and life just getting in the way – I put the manuscript aside.  Usually for about four to six weeks. For some reason, this seems to coincide with other breaks, like school holidays or Christmas or something, so this has never been too much of a problem.

Once the six weeks is over, I re-read it in hard copy with a critical eye. I try not to get too bogged down in the words at this stage (although of course, I do, a little), but for me, draft two is all about STRUCTURE. What goes where.

The point of Draft Two is to kill your darlings. Heighten the tension. Compress the narrative.  I find it a very hard process.

In Draft Two I shuffle scenes about. Sometimes I write in the margin – ‘Compress.’ ‘Tighten.’ ‘This drags.’ ‘Do I need this scene?’ If I think a scene should be somewhere else, I circle it, draw a big arrow to where it needs to go.

You can do this in other ways. Some people use post-it notes, drafting a short, cryptic summary on each, and putting them on a big wall. Some use index files or software.

Questions on School Visit

The point of any method is always to ensure that everything in your story has a purpose; that each scene drives the story onwards. Do whatever works for you. It’s not like there’s a right and a wrong here – it’s the outcome that matters, not how you manage your process.

When I’ve ruthlessly worked through the manuscript, I start back on the computer. I make another file called ‘Draft Two’ and work through the marked-up edit points. I start a file called ‘leftover’ and anything I’m not sure about deleting I cut from Draft Two and paste into the leftover. Most of the time I won’t need this pasted material, but it’s like a security blanket, just in case. It’s pretty hard to let my darlings go completely.

I find Draft Two the hardest stage. It’s when I realize that my shining gem of a first draft is actually only a damaged pebble.

Although even a pebble has beauty; Draft Two is about exposing that beauty.

7 Steps to Writing Your First Draft

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Your First Draft is Always Shit

The purpose of the first draft is to get stuff out of your head and into words.

 

writer's notebook

 

Warning: Don’t expect great things from your first draft. It’s almost always shit. But that doesn’t matter – what is important is getting the WORDS ONTO THE PAGE. Remember, if you don’t start, you will never finish. That’s the point of the first draft – to finish.

My First Draft Process

  1. Every day I write something new.
  2. First draft stuff is written early in the day, when I’m still feeling creative.
  3. I have a word target. I do not get up from my chair until I reach this target. It might be 500 words, it might be 2000, but whatever it is, I keep going until I’m there.
  4. I begin by reviewing what I wrote the day before.  But I try not to edit it too much, otherwise I get stuck in Edit Mode. There’s a big difference between Edit and Create.
  5. Once I reach my word target, if I’m in the zone, I keep going. (If I’m not, I go for a walk. I find walking clears away the cobwebs, helps me think knotty issues through.)
  6. Every day, I tell myself ‘well done’.
  7. Repeat this process until finished.

And I DO NOT get worked up over what is happening until the story is finished.

Worrying about plot holes is a sure fire way to procrastinate.

Something like Nanowrimo can help – the way you get a little graph at the end of the day is quite cool. Plus, its nice to feel you’re not alone.

Of course, this is all wonderful stuff. I break my rules all the time.

What is a Novel? Character, Conflict and Change.

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What Is a Novel?

Here’s my definition: a novel is fictional characters undergoing transformational conflict.

What does this mean?

Conflict can be internal, that is from inside the character, where the character grows and changes.  In A Room With a View, Lucy’s perspective on society changes.

Conflict can also be external – where the characters change in response to something outside themselves. In The Light Between Oceans ( a novel by my more famous namesake!) a lighthouse keeper discovers a baby girl and decides to keep a secret.  It’s also worth noting that, although generally fictional, a novel may be based on fact. (A little-known example of fact inspiring fiction is To Kill a Mockingbird.)

In a novel, characters don’t have to be human; the main characters in Watership Down are rabbits, and Beak of the Moon tells a story from the perspective of keas (mountain parrots). But even in these examples, the characters undergo conflict, and they learn something from this conflict that changes them.

Also, obviously, a novel, unlike a play, involves telling the story solely through writing.

How long is a novel?

A novel can  be as short or as long as the author decides, but for adult fiction the following generally applies:

  • A novella: between 10,000 – 30,000 words
  • A short story: between 1000 – 5000 words
  • Flash fiction: less than 1000 words.

And then there’s micro fiction, (I call this tweet-fiction) which is ubershort and almost impossible to write, because how can you set character, conflict and resolution into 140 characters? Ernest Hemingway did, though, in these famous six words: “For sale: baby’s shoes, never worn.”

In summary:

A novel is:

  • A written work
  • Fictional
  • Involves characters, conflict and change
  • Generally (but not always) requires a resolution.

At least, that’s my definition! Over to you, dear reader. What’s your definition of a novel?

Because that’s the nice thing about writing and reading – there’s no right or wrong. There’s only the reader and the words.

What Can I Write About – 6 Ways to Come Up With Ideas

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Finding Your Ideas

I’m often asked ‘how do you come up with your ideas?’

writer's notebook
Notebook – Image from Pixabay

Actually, being a fantasy writer, I’m almost never at a loss. But I know other folk aren’t as lucky (or as unlucky, it’s a real pain sometimes, all these stories sloshing about inside). Here’s some tips to help you find your ideas, with examples of how these have worked for me.

6 Ways To Generate Ideas

  1. Inspiration. This doesn’t actually happen that often. It was how I wrote A Necklace of Souls though – I had a dream, and scribbled it down.
  2. What ifs. I tease out an idea I’m interested in. I did this for Inner Fire, because I was interested in the idea of facial recognition technology, and what might happen if someone might be able to change their face at will.
  3. People I meet. My boss’s daughter works in a shoe-shop, and somehow that morphed into a Cinderella remake. Go figure! (That’s in Upon a Time, in case you’re wondering.)
  4. Family stories. I once wrote my grandfather’s story – he was a conscientious objector in World War One. This was published in The School Journal, Feb 2012, which made my entire family very happy!
  5. Change up an old favourite. – That’s my entire Upon A Time collection, as they’re all retellings of fairytales.
  6. Look online. There are some great ideas on this tumblr blog (Writerswrite.org). I’ve also pinned images on my pinterest boards to act as story inspiration. You have to be careful with this though, or you’ll end up with the same ideas as everyone else.

Want more information or downloadable resources? Check out my “For Teachers” page, or check out this FREE printable resource.

How to Move from Blogger to WordPress

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Moving from Blogger to WordPress?

I’ve just moved my blog to my wordpress website.

I changed because I prefer the look and feel of my website (plus, it offers a bit more functionality). Now I know that this is the sort of thing that gets the blogger excited but is relatively boring for the readership, but if you’re about to do this too, here are some resources that might help.

How to move from blogger to wordpress.org

(assuming you already have a wordpress.org site)

– import your blog content. Here are step by step instructions (from Labnol.org)

– set up your blog page. Here’s the you tube video I followed . This video is by Mike Kim; it’s a little dry, but it’s nice and slow and really easy to understand.

And having done all that (which took me a whole frigging week because I am so non-techo..) I DELETED all the old blog posts from my new site. Why?

Because on my new site, I’m starting again from scratch. And here I am!

Link to my old blog here. So far, I’m enjoying the wordpress experience.