One of the first lessons a novelist learns is that writing a book is not like writing an essay in school. The dynamics are different. The time factors are different. The end results are different. The drafts are different. With an essay it’s common to finish a full draft of the paper before doing any editing. It’s a process that works well for things under twenty pages long, and usually doesn’t work at all in anything longer.
But this is where people get hung up and worried while writing their book. They worry about not having enough writing in the first draft. Or about getting the first page perfect before they move to the next chapter. These are valid worries, but they are not First Draft worries.
Draft by draft let’s look at what a typical draft looks like from the mechanical side. As with all writing advice this is something you should take and make your own. There is no wrong way to get a book written (although writing in blood is frowned on).
PRE-DRAFT – Before you write you make a basic plan. Pick a genre, some villains, a goal for the protagonist, a few plot twists. Do some research. Think about the idea for a few days. If you still love it after jotting down a paragraph or two, go ahead and write. If you don’t, save the paragraph for a later date and let the idea simmer.
DRAFT 1 – Get the big scenes down now. The ones you know. The ones you dream about. Putting them in order is nice, but not essential. The goal here is to get as much of the book out of your head and on the page as possible. Leave blank pages and notes for scenes you aren’t ready to write. Go as far as you can before you need to edit.
DRAFT 2 – This is actually the first rough edit. Read through the manuscript, put things in order, make notes of what is missing, figure out what scenes need to be written, and delete anything that doesn’t work with the ending you plan for the novel. Did you go off on a tangent for twenty pages in the first draft? That’s fine, cut it and save it for your newsletter. If your first draft is just throwing things at the canvas to see what sticks, the second draft is sniping the canvas with a paint ball gun. The second draft is chaotic and distant, you can work out of order and shuffle everything, but it gets the job done.
DRAFT 3 – Here the story starts to take shape. You should have an ending penciled in by this point. You know the characters and their motivations, so in the third draft you’re trying to put all the details and foreshadowing done. It’s easier to do this in order. Start at page one and keep moving through the draft until you run out of pages to work on. Write a little here, move a comma there, add a scene or six, shorten something else. Fiddle. Play. Refine. Overlap. Pack in as much to each scene as you can. Put the ending on the book.
DRAFT 4 – Another editing draft. This one should be close to the final word count and is best edited with notes from your crit partner or beta reader. Address the issues an outsider sees and fix everything to your very best ability. At the end of the fourth draft your novel should be ready for your editor or to send on query.
BUT MY NOVEL ISN’T READY!!!
Time to trouble-shoot…
LOW WORD COUNT – Look at the story after Draft 4. Is it what you want it to be? Is everything explained in detail? Did you set the scene? Did you flesh out the characters? Did you resolve the plot threads?
Yes! -> Great! You wrote something shorter than planned, but that’s okay. There’s a market for stories of every length.
No! -> Go back and set each scene (a paragraph or two at the opening of each scene describing the location), tie up loose plot threads, and make your character well-rounded individuals.
HIGH WORD COUNT – Is it everything you want it to be? Does it have a place where you could break the story into two or more books?
Yes! -> Great! You have a series! Break that book up and give them pretty covers. You’re great!
No! -> Look for common problems like over-writing, redundancy, repetition, or tangent plot lines. Cut the tangent plot lines and make them side stories (novellas and short stories are fun!). Trust your reader to be smart and cut the repetitions and redundancies. If the manuscript is still too long for your genre, call in the cavalry and get a crit partner, writing group, or freelance editor to help.
BORING STORY – Is the story actually boring or did you just get tired of editing the darn thing? It happens. Reading the same thing nonstop for months at a time is enough to wear down anyone’s resolve. Give the book a break for a few weeks, let your beta readers look at it, and then revisit it.
Still Boring -> You’re missing a key element like conflict, goals, or antagonists. Go back to Draft 2 and re-evaluate what you have.
Not So Bad -> Good job! You wrote a book!
BAD ENDING – Does the story just fizzle at the end? You wrote The End but it doesn’t feel final? Go back and look at what promises you made. Remember the rule of Chekov’s Gun, if you bring in a weapon in Act 1 you need to use it before the end of the play. If your character struggles to learn a skill on page one they need to use that skill to help resolve the conflict. Also look at what was foreshadowed and see if you made the character’s nightmares come true.
That fixed it -> Great! You did awesome work.
Still not feeling it. -> Hand it over to your crit partner and take some time to re-evaluate the work. You may have started with one ending in mind, and written it, but life happened and now that happily ever after isn’t doing the job. Let the book rest, rewrite, or shelve it as needed.
SLOW PACING – Pacing is a hard because it’s not a single thing, but the reaction you get when you combine multiple aspects of a book. Sentence length, conflict, white space, and hooks all play a part in making a book a quick read. Read through and ask: did I vary the sentence length, do chapters end mid-action or with questions, does the protagonist experience different forms of conflict, are there plot twists, is there enough white space on the page to make the book easy to read?
Yes! -> If you have all this and the pacing is still off look at the goals, conflict, and stakes. Usually one of them is too low. Raising the stakes or making goals harder to achieve will help a lot.
No. -> Do another edit paying attention to sentence length, chapter endings, and white space.
I DON’T WANT TO WRITE/EDIT – Okay. So… don’t. No one is forcing you to write this book.
… but I want to be a writer! -> Cool! Go write another book. Start with writing some basic High Concept Pitches and then fill out a beat sheet.
I have a deadline. -> Bribery. Bribes have worked since the dawn of civilization. Promise yourself a reward for getting a scene edited, a chapter written, or line edits done.
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