3 Tips for Fast Drafting Your Novel In Record Time

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Writing Mastery Academy, a 2021 NaNo sponsor, was founded by Jessica Brody, author of the bestselling plotting guide Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. In this post, Jessica shares her tips for getting words down on the page quickly, aka Fast Drafting:

As an author who writes on more than 350,000 words per year, I like to joke that every month is a NaNoWriMo for me. So with the real NaNoWriMo approaching, I thought I’d share my top 3 tips for writing quickly and efficiently, which you can use to easily smash through that 50k mark this November! 

1. You Don’t Need an Outline. You Only Need 5 Things.

As the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, I’m used to talking about plot. But as any happy “pantser” will tell you, you don’t have to start a novel with a full plot outline (although you certainly can!). 

No matter if you’re a die hard plotter, pantser or somewhere in between, I urge you to, at the very least, sit down and brainstorm 5 things about your main character, your plot, and your world before you begin writing. 

In my Novel Fast Drafting course, I call this the “Level 1” groundwork. It’s the bare minimum brainstorming that I believe you need to set yourself up for success when fast drafting your NaNo novel. 

And here’s the best news: the 5 things can be anything! 

For your main character, it can be physical traits, personality traits, unique characteristics, nervous ticks, habits, pet peeves, pieces of backstory, likes, dislikes, flaws, the sky’s the limit! 

For your plot, it can be any 5 things that happen in your story at any time. Your opening scene, your final scene, a kissing scene, a fight scene, a discovery scene, a battle scene, a break-up scene. This is a wide-open brainstorm that will get you started thinking about structure and more importantly, give you scenes to write toward.

And for your world (realistic or fantasy!), start your groundwork by brainstorming any 5 high-level details about the setting of your story. Like facts or history of the town, number of oceans or planets, biggest rivals (political, personal, or between schools or towns), rules of magic, etc. 

Starting with only 5 things for character, plot, and world will help keep you on track throughout the process and point you in the right direction. Think of it like a rudder on your novel’s boat. 

Of course, you can go beyond those 5 things (as many happy plotters will tell you!) and I often find writers who start with these 5 things end up brainstorming much more, but these 5 things are a great starting point.

2. Always Write Forward, Never Backward.

This tip might seem obvious. Of course, I would always write forward! Why would I write backward? But you’d be surprised! Every time you go back and edit something that you’ve already written, you are essentially writing backward. You are erasing progress. I know, I know, it’s called revision. But the whole philosophy behind my Fast Drafting method (and arguably a key step to winning NaNoWriMo) is that you only put new words on the page every day. Which means resisting the urge to edit words you’ve already written. 

This is not easy. But here’s what I say to myself as I Fast Draft, whenever I feel the urge to edit: 

“Present Jessica is a horrible reviser! Because Present Jessica has no idea what the full story is going to look like. Present Jessica is the least capable person to revise this novel. But you know who is the most capable person to revise this novel? Future Jessica! Future Jessica has seen the whole story from start to finish. She has perspective. She knows what needs to be done and how to do it. Present Jessica would just be wasting time if she started revising now.” 

And it’s true! Until you’ve finished the story, you can’t revise it with clarity. And the fastest way to finish the story and get that clarity is to always write forward. 

3. Revise Invisibly.

But! But! But what if I have ideas for revising as I write? I don’t want to forget them! Of course, you don’t. And here’s where the most crucial element of my Fast Drafting method comes into play (and what many students in my Novel Fast Drafting course have called a “game changer”). 

I call it “Invisible Revising” and here’s how it works: 

Invisible revisions are revisions you only make in your mind. Not on the actual page. I know, it sounds like a Jedi mind trick or something. Maybe I should call them Jedi revisions…

When a revision idea comes to you (whether it be something small like a name change or large like the introduction of a new subplot), instead of going back to make the revision when the idea comes to you, you write it down somewhere so you don’t forget. Or maybe you leave a little comment for yourself in the manuscript, like, “Change name,” or “introduce new subplot here.” Then, you keep going. But here’s the catch. You keep going, as if you’ve already made the change.

It’s an invisible revision. 

From that point forward, the character has a new name and that new subplot does exist. It doesn’t make for the tidiest first draft (but that’s not what first drafts are for, are they? Otherwise they’d be called final drafts.) But it makes for a very fast and efficient first draft. Because it saves so much time. Instead of writing backward (going back to add in the new subplot), you revise it invisibly and keep writing forward. Then, by the time you reach the end of the first draft, you know exactly what you need to do to revise it.

With just these three tips: brainstorm 5 things, always write forward, and revise invisibly, you can stop stressing, second-guessing and endlessly revising, and rock NaNoWriMo (and every writing month)! 

If you want to dive deeper into invisible revisions or any of these tips, you can learn more in my Novel Fast Drafting course, available to stream on-demand in the Writing Mastery Academy.

Here’s to your Fast Drafting success!

Jessica Brody is the author of the #1 bestselling novel-writing guide, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and the founder of the online writing school, Writing Mastery Academy. She has also written over 20 novels for teen, tweens, and adults. Her books have been translated and published in over 23 countries and several have been optioned for film and television.

Top photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash.