Organizing First Drafts

Well hello there Reader, happy Sunday.

One of the most terrifying things when you sit down to write is to actually write. It is staggering to look at your blank screen or page and think to yourself “I’m expected to fill this?”. I had a lot of trouble with getting my first novel started. There were so many ideas in my head, and so many missing spaces, that I was lost in what I should be doing. Online guides of general advice helped some, but there was no substitute for sitting down and finding what my process was.

When I finally did it and broke through the wall, about two years after deciding that being an author was what I wanted to do with my life (See this post for the story behind that: What the Forbes? An Introduction) I still had a long journey left ahead. But here are a few questions I had to ask myself to get my first draft heading in the right direction.  Please, as always, remember these are my views. Do not take them as fact or get offended by how I say I feel something should work. We are all here to try to get better. If you feel my advice is bad, I hope you at least get something out of why you think it’s bad.

• Where do I start? Where does my story take place?

This is the world building. For some people, this is the best part. In fact, I know some people who just do this process repeatedly because they just enjoy it so much. This is the part of the process where you get to let your mind go crazy. Nothing is too outlandish. No idea is too ridiculous to be written down.

During my world building I focused a lot on my, well, world. Of course, I had my characters in mind, but I was careful not to let them have too much say in this part of the process. This is the sandbox in which they will get to play, that does not mean they get to help build the box. This is the rules of your world. The environments. The politics. Thinking of what makes it different from the other stories in the genre you are diving into and what makes it close enough to attract a reader.

World building can take as long as you want it to. Years can be spent tweaking and changing things until they look like something you want your people to play in. The only thing I would say is to not spend so long at this phase. Because once you are making small changes once every few weeks you know that you are probably using your world building to procrastinate. “But it doesn’t feel quite right.” Your first draft is for you. Nobody else is going to read it. So just go with it. Start writing with a canvas you know is flawed, just not how. I promise, your soldiers will find those flaws for you.

• Who will the story follow?

Now, my favorite part. You have built this amazing world. It is the actual cat’s pajamas. You are the first person to ever do anything like it. Now you get to fill it with people. Character driven stories are my absolute favorite. Nothing bothers me more than a bad character. Someone who just does not feel real. That does not make sense.

Building your characters should take time. If it does not, well there might be something wrong with them. These should feel like people. In the process of creating your characters I believe it is perfectly fine to sit and talk to yourself for hours at a time (Just make sure nobody around is sitting there listening and thinking you are crazy).

Many authors, myself included, like to include some sort of memorable characteristic with every character that the reader is supposed to remember. After all, which is easier to remember? A pirate. Or a pirate that wears a bright pink clown wig? Personally, I would put my money on the wig.

Their personalities must differ from one another. Without differences you will not have conflict. Without conflict you will lack the driving force behind your story. There cannot be change without it. Build your characters from the ground up. Identify the important ones. Who is your main character? Through whose eyes will we be seeing the sandbox you worked so hard on (I really like what you did with the oceans, by the way)?

Remember you need to find a way to get us attached to these characters. You must make us like them. In a very short amount of time we need to understand what they are about and what their motivations are. We must quickly care, or you are dead in the water. Do not skimp on the characters.

While you are coming up with your characters, and your world before them, you have very likely been thinking of the story. The things that happen. The rise and fall. Keep this in your mind during every part of the process. After all it is not much of a story without… the story.

Find who we are following, who is close to them, who is relevant. Then throw them in there and start the next part of the process.

• Should I Outline, or Should I Pants?

Your characters are in the box. Your world is crafted. Your story is ready to start being filled in. At this point in my process I have not started the writing part yet. Now I need to organize a bit more.

There are three types of writers. People like me, who outline a lot. People who do not outline much at all (Pantsers I believe is the term they prefer). Then a healthy mix of both.

I do not recommend any of the three more than the others. It comes down to what you want to do. It is your story and you are the only person who is actually going to write it. I will, however, outline what I know about the two major ways. The Outliner, and the Pantser.

The Outliner plans nearly every event in the story, where the Pantser just goes with it. Now, from every Pantser I have met they do not just let it go completely. Even they have a few important plot points they know they need to hit. But they do not map out the parts in between as thoroughly. As an Outliner I try to fill in the blanks I can see, and leave the grey where I can afford to leave it.

An outline can be a dangerous thing. If you adhere to strictly to the plot you already laid out, you will strangle your own story. Your characters need to be free to go off the path a bit. Follow them around. They like to show you some cool side areas that you did not even know about. This is where you get the best of both worlds. Off the beaten path.

Choose your level of organization. It is truly up to you. Just make sure that you have a clear idea where your story starts, where it goes, and where it ends. Before you start writing.

• What do your people do? How do they change?

Your characters should drive the story. Your story is flushed out, at least to a point. What do your characters do to make that story happen? What are the choices they make to move things along? Why do they make those choices?

These are a lot of questions. Unfortunately for you, dear Reader, they are all questions that are on you to answer. That is a pretty scary thought.

Every character should change in some way, big or small, during every scene they are in. There must always be change. There must always be conflict. Look at each character that you deem important in every scene in which they appear. What did they contribute? What did they go into that situation thinking or doing? What now? Everything they do has to make sense in the story.

If you have knockout characters, an awesome world, and a great story, you are really onto something.

Now, be prepared to have it all be ruined.

• How much are you willing to change?

Kill your darlings. It is most likely one of the most common pieces of writing advice ever given (and also the most hated). It means be prepared to butcher a character, event, place, thing, in your writing that you have grown to care about. Sometimes you will find yourself attached to a character that provides nothing for the story. Sometimes you will defend that something to the death, ready to throw down with the first person that says they do not really understand what they bring to the table.

When you sit down you need to keep your mind on this idea. Am I willing to change this? There are parts of your story that you might think are important, but if you search yourself you might discover that they are in fact, not. That is okay. Everybody has that thing in there that just does not need to be there.

What is important is that your story is told in the best way possible. If someone tells you they do not like a certain thing about your work or cannot seem to find a reason for it to be there, look at it again yourself. Hear others. They see things we, the author, do not. That is okay.

You must be willing to make changes if you ever want your work to go anywhere. If not, well maybe it is best you keep it to yourself. I promise, people want you to do well. Listen to them and yourself. If something is not right, you probably were secretly concerned about it too.

One important thing I want to add to this, however, know when to stick with your guns. If it is important, if it HAS to be there for the story, fight. It is your story. You are the only one who can tell it.

• Now write it

No question for this one. Time to write. Let nothing stand in your way. Prioritize it. Make it important and make it so. No frills for this. Time to write.

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As always, thanks for reading.