Kami Garcia: On Building Better Stories and Perseverance

The “Now What?” Months are here! In 2014, we’ll be bringing you advice from authors who published their NaNo-novels, editors, agents, and more to help you polish November’s first draft until it gleams. Today, Kami Garcia offers a pep talk filled with step-by-step advice:

So you made it through NaNoWriMo, and you have 50,000 words… now what? It’s the same question a lot of writers face when they finish a first draft. The good news is you finished the hard part: you have a draft.

I can hear some of you cursing me now: “But Kami, my first draft is totally crappy and worthless. It’s terrible. I wasted an entire month of my life, and all I have 50,000 terrible words to show for it.”

My answer: It doesn’t matter if you wrote the crappiest first draft in the history of all first drafts. You have something to work with, which means you can fix it, mold it, and bang it into whatever shape you want. Here are a few tips to get started:

Read Your First Draft (and Possibly Cry a Little)

After you put away the pint of ice cream and the tissues, take an objective look at your draft. What are the strongest points? The parts that kept you reading? Whether you print out your draft to make notes or use software (I love Scrivener), mark the best bits—circle, highlight, whatever works for you. These are the parts you’ll re-read whenever you start to lose hope (which will be often).

Ask: What’s Your Problem Anyway?

Two of the most common problems with first drafts are:

there is no problem in the story, or
the structure and pacing make it difficult to find the problem and care about it.

Every story needs to have a problem. The problem can be as big as the end of the world, or as small as trying to make it through the school day (which is pretty much the same as the end of the world).

Stories are made of conflict, and problems cause conflict. Make sure your main character wants or needs something, and then put as many obstacles in her path as possible.

If your draft doesn’t have a problem anywhere in sight (or a big enough problem for the reader to care about), figure out what your main character wants and put something—or someone—in their way.

Build a Better Story

A house is only as strong as its foundation, and the same is true of stories. Most stories share common structural elements or plot points. For example, books and films often begin by showing a protagonist in her everyday life. Within a few minutes (or chapters), trouble starts brewing.

To be sure I hit all the major plot points, I make a beat sheet before I start writing, but you can make easily one after you’re finished. I use a combination of Blake Snyder’s beat sheet and James Scott Bell’s LOCK system.

If you want to read more about all this plot stuff, these are my go-to books: The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, and Story Engineering by Larry Brooks.

Create Unforgettable Characters

Character is the reason readers keep turning the pages. If a reader cares about the protagonist, they’ll follow you through the murkiest muck of a plot to see what happens to her. Your protagonist needs to be relatable, which is not the same thing as being likable. While there is nothing wrong with being likable, lots of great stories are written about antiheroes with less than stellar personalities.

Give your protagonist fears, doubts, and flaws, just like the rest of us. While sympathetic and likable can be pluses in a protagonist, relatability is the key to making readers care.

Look at Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series: though undeniably unlikable, he won over more than a few readers when his struggles with bullying and unrequited love were revealed.

Find a Reader

Now that you’ve revised, it’s time to find a reader. This person should not be your mother. Find the person who will tell you that your new dress looks hideous on you. You’re looking for honesty here. Choose someone who’s interested in the genre in which you’re writing and who also loves to read, and then hand over the pages.

Here’s the catch: You have to be willing to listen to criticism if you want to become a better writer. Personally, I’m not precious with my words, meaning I don’t get offended or upset if someone tells me to cut a line or a paragraph. I don’t need to hang onto every word—I’m not going to run out. It would worry me more if my reader couldn’t get through my novel because it was boring.

Work Big to Small

Tackle the biggest issues with your manuscript first. Don’t start editing individual sentences when your story doesn’t have a problem or the necessary plot points to keep readers turning the pages.

I revise in three phases. In Phase 1, I work through the major issues: plot holes, pacing, or scenes without enough conflict.
In Phase 2, I develop characters and character arcs more fully, check consistency, and make sure the rules of my universe are clear.
Phase 3 consists of adding details, polishing prose, and checking facts—all the small stuff.

Some writers can deal with all three levels of revision simultaneously. I’m not one of them.

The Most Important Advice I Have to Offer: Keep going, and don’t give up.

You don’t need an MFA, an agent, or a fancy publishing contract to be a writer. While those things are great, and you may end up getting some of them, the only things you need to be a writer are a pen, an idea, and the determination to keep going. If you have those three things, you are already a writer—published or not.

Kami Garcia is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Unbreakable (Book 1 in the Legion Series) & coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures novels and the spin-off, Dangerous Creatures  (May 2014). She lives in Maryland with her family, and their dogs Spike and Oz. Learn more about the Legion series, and follow her on Twitter.