The First Draft

By now you have your basic outline and cast of characters, so it's time to write that first draft. First drafts can be daunting, all that whitespace. I hate first drafts. They make my brain hurt.

They require imagination overload. Editing once I have something written is far easier than staring at that blank page. I'm too self critical during the first draft and it often causes me to stop and go back, reworking before I have my skeleton laid out.

So, take that ten-page outline you started with and turn it into thirty pages, still in outline form, laying out exactly what each scene will contain, whose point of view the scene will be from, what conversations will occur in that scene, how it will move plot forward. I tend to forget what I have in my outline so I simply save a copy of it and write the actual scenes right over it as I go so I don't get sidetracked.

First draft is all about the pacing of your story. Keeping the plot moving forward, nothing else. This is what will keep your reader engaged later so it's critical that you do it well. Write as fast as you can, no self editing. Just let your imagination flow. Later drafts will bring details and subplots into focus. If something occurs to you, make a note of it if you must, but now is not the time to dwell on nitpicky issues.

Writing is like building a house--first you have a blueprint, that's your outline; second, dig the foundation, your characters and plot; third, frame up the house, this is your first draft. You wouldn't try to paint and decorate a room during framing, so don't do it during your first draft.

If you've studied writing at all you've heard the phrase "show, don't tell." This is a basic theme in life--after all, we judge someone's character by the things they do, not just what they say. And if the two don't align we know something is askew! In writing it's no different and it applies on many levels--I'll write more about this next week. At this phase, your outline tells what will happen; your first draft turns that telling into showing. Instead of, "They had an animated conversation about the price of beef and Shelley saw what a great wit Mark had" put the whole scene onstage. Let your reader be in on the conversation, hear Mark's wit for themselves, see the body language between Shelley and Mark that shows us whether they are interested in each other or not. Readers want to discern that the conversation is animated for themselves. Showing turns a flat, boring piece of information into a three-dimensional scene that the reader can partake of--far more memorable and fun.

A good rule of thumb: if you look at a page and see no quotation marks (dialogue) odds are there's some unnecessary telling going on that can be turned to showing. And since this is your first draft you're allowed to have some telling left in by the time you're done--as long as it's gone by the time you finish draft #2!

Set a daily page goal--five pages would be minimum for me, but if you can only manage one you can still write a book in a year! Ten pages would be optimal--a 300 page book in a month. That's pretty amazing. Odds are your first draft will be way under the final word count you're shooting for. That's okay. The next drafts will add in scenes, depth of plot and characterization, so don't worry about it. The word count will come. Story comes before word count.

That's probably enough for today. Have fun with it and don't be too intimidated by that blank page.

Warmly,

Traci