This is the fifth installment in the “HOW I WRITE” series I’m participating in every Wednesday with several writers, where we all discuss how we approach writing a book. Every writer has a different process and this project gives us a chance to share and compare ours. Click on the “How I Write” image to find a list of the participating writers and links to their blogs.
This week’s topic is The First Draft.
Once I’ve completed the 8 preparation steps I discussed during last week’s topic on Starting a New Book, writing the first draft is a rather simple process. I take the outline I created in my spreadsheet and transfer it into a Word document in the format of a book. Sometimes my outlines contain actual snippets of dialog or narrative from scenes, other times there’s only the summary of the events. Either way – I paste it into in my Word document as if they were actual scenes / chapters. By the time I’m actually ready to start drafting, I already have a few thousand words of story with designated scenes and chapters!
So at this point, finishing the first draft is moreso about “filling in the blanks” than anything else. I visit each summary or incomplete scene I already wrote and flesh it out. I do a couple of scenes a day, with each day visiting the last scene I wrote before to make sure it flows smoothly. For instance, on Monday I may flesh out the first chapter. On Tueday, I’ll go over chapter 1 again and then dive into chapter 2. On Wednesday, I’ll revisit chapter 2 before fleshing out chapter 3, and so on. But because I already generally have the entire story laid out, every once in a while I sometimes flesh out scenes out of order. I use Word’s Document Map feature to help me jump from scene to scene and chapter to chapter easily.
That’s it. Actually writing the first draft sounds simple when I write it out. If only it were simple to get my butt in the chair and write every time I’m supposed to … *sighs*
Don’t forget to visit other participating blogs to see how other writers develop characters, plots and imaginary worlds. Come back for next week’s topic: Motivation / Getting Through the Middle.
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I do the fill in the blank method with my outline too! I definitely need to learn how to use Word's document map… any pointers you'd like to share? It sounds very helpful!
Ansha, I don't know how I lived before I discovered Word's Document Map. Here's some pointers: give your chapters and scenes titles to help you identify them, and make them a "Heading" style format. Anything that is a header will show up in your document map as clickable "table-of-contents" type item.
Let me know if you still need help!
Ok, I am learning so much from you. This is awesome information because most of the time my scenes come to me out of order. But if I outline and fill in the scenes I have in the outline then it should help me a great deal. Thanks!
Most of the time, the scene that first comes to me that inspires the story, isn't the beginning. And sometimes, the chapter that I can't get out of my head is somewhere in the middle (or near the end) when I'm no where near it. I say why not write it down while the lightning is striking, even if it is out of order? Glad I could help!
Get out of my head! lol That is exactly where my stories come from. Something will trigger my muse, be it a smell, picture, phrase and I'll see the scene and usually the main character. And you are so right, the scene I am seeing is usually somewhere in the middle. lol
I love your wisdom! It comes from experience I think. I am going to try this, it seems so straightforward. Thanks. And I totally get that butt in chair thing.
You're welcome!
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