Elements
Without bones, people are nothing but floppy meat sacks. Fiction is the same. It needs support to flesh out the story and that starts with the rough draft. The meat on the bones are plot, characterization and a building a logical flow to the story. They polish a manuscript, but excessive details aren’t necessary in the beginning and can even bog the writer down, so that the story comes to a screaming halt and never leaves the planning process.
How do you begin a rough draft? First, select the voice. Should it be first person, second or third? Some writing blogs will tell you to avoid a certain voice (usually first person). Ignore them and go with your gut. It’s never wrong. One of the voices will “feel right.” Next, chose a theme. This isn’t a big deal. If you have an idea for a story, you already have a theme, but you may not have put voice to it. Common themes such overcoming adversity, coming of age, and redemption. A theme helps keep the plot focused. When you come to a sticking point, consider the themes. How can it advance from here?
To schedule or not to schedule? That is the question.
It’s important to have a place to work that’s comfortable and relatively free of distractions. You don’t need a desk. Want to work in your jammies? Go right ahead, but set aside time to write. How much is up to you, but try to have some consistency. You’ll never finish that Great American Novel if you don’t give yourself time to work on it.
Should you strive for a daily word count, page count, or paragraph goal? Decide what stresses you out the least and go with that. Remember, even if you only do three paragraphs a day, keep at it and in about six months you’ll have a novel. It takes more time than that to make a baby.
“The first draft reveals the art; revision reveals the artist.” Michael Lee
How much research does a rough draft need?
Surprisingly little or none. J. K. Rowling and Vladimir Nabokov plotted their stories out first on little notecards. Frankly, that would drive me bat nuts. You can get so bogged down in the fiddly bits, that the meat of the story is lost. Research can lead you off on too many tangents. Instead, when you get to the point where data is needed, put in a placeholder and move on. The heroine in your ancient Mesopotamian time travel tale doesn’t need to know the dimensions of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon right away. Simply put INSERT GARDEN INFO here and keep writing. A rough draft means rough. On a side note: I would never do NaNoRiMo, the pressure of 2,000 words a day is too much. Do what’s comfortable for you. Writing isn’t punishment. If it’s not fun, why are you doing it? I wouldn’t. Life is too short to make yourself miserable.
Ack, I’m stuck.
You’ve hit the wall and can’t go farther, but that ending is still dynamite. The question is how to get there if you’re stuck someplace else? The writing police won’t arrest you if you write out of order. Write that dynamite ending first and then go back to the middle. Or write the ending first before starting the first chapter and maybe a few scenes that stick in your mind. Then go back to the beginning and work your way forward.
“Good stories are not written. They are rewritten.”
Phyllis Whitney
Forgive us this day our daily crappy writing.
I don’t care what your mommy said, she lied. Your first draft isn’t special, it’s garbage. Everyone’s first draft is garbage, even William Shakespeare. His best friend would have raised an eyebrow and said, “Will, this reeketh.”
Apply the polish later. Don’t overedit as you write and feedback isn’t necessary. You don’t need feedback on garbage. You know it’s garbage. You need feedback when you have something better and need honest opinions for improvement.
When to give up.
I’m not one of those people who believes it’s important to suffer for art. That’s nonsense. I wake up excited to work on a project, but if I dread looking at it, then it’s time to shelve the rough draft and start something else. Never delete a draft, because you may come back to it later. After a time, new ideas surface. It’s okay to use only part of it, too. Take a scene you love, work on that instead, and send your story in a whole new direction.
Now get started on that rough draft and remember it will be garbage, but garbage can turn into compost and that can fertilize a lovely garden.
