Inspired by this interview with Nora Roberts, wherein she talks about her writing process, I have a question for y’all: what does your first draft look like?
In the interview with Clarissa Sansone, Roberts says,
“I’ll vomit out the first draft: bare-bones, get-the-story-down. I don’t edit and fiddle as I go, because I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Once I get the discovery draft down, then I’ll go back to page one, chapter one, and then I start worrying about how it sounds, where I’ve made mistakes, where I’ve gone right, what else I have to add, where’s the texture, where’s the emotion. I start fixing. And then, after I’ve done that all the way through again, I’ll go back one more time, and that’s when I’m really going to worry about the language.”
I’m so curious about what that bare-bones draft looks like and how it reads.
I don’t personally examine my own writing process closely because I don’t want to scare it or make it feel shy. But usually when I have an idea for an entry or an essay or whatever it is I’m writing, I open the nearest text editor and type whatever words are bubbling up in my brain. Sometimes that email from my Blackberry, or the text editor on my computer, but generally if I’ve had an idea for something, I have to write it down or it is gone, gone, gone. And if I’m not specific enough, I leave notes for myself that are mystifying. I have one that says, “Grate sidewalk sinktrap.” I can only assume I was about to write something really squicky, since there are few things more eeeeeyew-worthy in my world than the sink trap. I get the shivers just thinking about touching it.
Sometimes an entry of a few hundred words is born out of a note that consisted of five or six. Sometimes I can find a review in a two-word note in a margin (if I can read my handwriting). Sometimes I type out something in nonsensical order and then read later and wonder what I was smoking. But because this is a blog, unpublished entries don’t get better by sitting. They get stale. So my first draft is often one of only two, maybe the only one before I try to find any typos.
I’m sure this is relentlessly boring for you, but I’m meanwhile very curious about your drafting process, what your first draft looks like. Do you start at the beginning and seat-of-your-pants to the end? Do you outline and then draft? Do you ramble on and find the one good part and use that? Does it vary every time? How does it work for you?
I pants like whoa. I start with a vague idea and let the story tell itself as I go. Take my next EC book, for example. All I had to start with was “Guy’s car breaks down in Nowhere, Alabama, meets a hot mechanic…go!” That was it. By the time I was done a few weeks later, I had a book on my hands. It’s part of what makes writing so much fun for me, because it’s like reading a book, I never know what’s happening until I put my fingers on the keyboard and write it, so I’m finding out the story much the same way readers will, page by page.
I tend to put out a pretty tight first draft, I’ll go through it once for grammar, words that I used improperly intending something else, then it goes to my crit partner who sends me her notes, I decide what changes I want to accept, implement them and then it’s one final read through before sending it to my editor.
I could never sell on proposal, because as I said, I never know what’s going to happen until I write it. Props to those who can outline and stick to it.
Just got back from watching Hellboy 2, and I’m reading along, catching up on this very interesting thread when I come across this:
I can’t agree with this. Whatever process lets you get the work done is cool, and you don’t have to learn to plot to sell on proposal. I’ve sold six books on proposal now, and I didn’t plot a single one of them. So don’t stress; there’s no no absolute from person to person, and mileage from my advice may vary. That said, here’s how I do it.
I learned to write a short synopsis that pops. I’m talking 2-3 pages, double-spaced, no more than 1200 words, generally. I got good at selling a concept, and my synopses are so vague that almost anything could happen within the context of the core idea. I mean, obviously I can’t sell a book about a hit man and a con woman with paranormal gifts falling in love and then turn in a historical set in 1920s Wisconsin about a farmer and an aspiring journalist. But if you stick to your core idea, you’ll be fine, whatever the actual plot turns out to be.
So that’s what I recommend for pantsers who want to sell on proposal. Sell your voice and your idea—don’t worry about specific plot points. Your strength is in spontaneous magic (or mine is)… what happens as you’re bopping along, and your characters surprise you. Editors who work with you a while will realize that, and they’re not going to ask for a twenty page outline with subheadings. They’re just going to be happy to get an awesome book when you’re done.
This! That happens to me sometimes too, especially since I don’t plot anything at all. If I get to the point where I’m truly stuck and have painted myself into a corner or the characters dig their heels in and refuse to go any further until I fix whatever they don’t like, I’ll go back to wherever the writing last really flowed, cut the offending part out and start over from that point. I, too, save the cut bits in a file but as of yet I’ve never gone back to them.
Wow, I put the whiteboard up in the shower. The hubster just came out and said, “Cool.” Now that’s funny.
For me, first drafts are like sticking needles under my fingernails. As an editor in my “real” job, it’s a constant battle to talk myself into letting the first draft be as gloriously imperfect as it needs to be. My first drafts are riddled with notes to myself that read something like “FIX THIS LATER!”
Usually, after it’s (finally!) done, I call my sister and verbally talk through the entire book while she listens. Just the talk-through process reveals plot holes, weak character motivations, etc.
Then I start my favorite part of writing – revising! Yee haw! Give me a full page o’ crap to shape up, and I’m a happy camper. Blank pages? Not so much.
O.M.G. MoJo. Your writing process looks just right for me. I’ve tried all the methods I’ve heard: notecards, plotting board, Alison Kent’s method, PBW’s method, etc. All of them have left me frustrated and cagey. When I first began to write, I wrote detailed synopses (everything: character emotions, snippets of dialogue, what was so important about the scene, etc) and a query letter to determine whether or not I had a handle on the plot and the characters before I was ready to write the first draft. Then I joined writing loops whose members made me feel I was going about everything all wrong and I’ve flailed ever since.
Currently, I’m working on a research method to keep the flow going. I tend to stop writing when I trip over a historical detail I’m not sure about and end up surfing the web or flipping through my books longer than I ought to. Now I plan to create a scrapbook of everything pertaining to my WIP—historical background, photos of interiors, floorplans, menus, things my characters would know based on their profession, and so on—to keep myself on schedule. But MoJo’s process will be a nice addition to the new phase in my writing process.
Evangeline, glad to help. Like others in the thread, I keep a “snippets” file. It usually grows as big as the book.
I really had to keep myself in check for the book I’m putting out this fall, since it involves three full-length romances on one story arc over a five-year timeline, and they all had to be integrated seamlessly. The seamless, well, my editor’s un-kinking all my kink there, but yeah, I did it that way.
Yes, like you, I had to know those things. But I made sure to know them inside and out when I was writing so I didn’t have to rearrange too much. I ran into a problem when the exhibit that I used in an art gallery wasn’t there anymore and that required some serious juggling of the scene so it would come out (heh, no pun intended) the way it needed to.
And hey, if you’re in need of a critique partner, I am, too. 🙂
I have no method whatsoever. Some vague, overriding idea, yeah, but not much more than that. Since a story’s elements arrive at Grand Central Brain Station on no particular schedule and in no particular order, my first-draft material is scattered all over the damned place.
Typically, I’ll have some sort of master manuscript on my ‘puter. I’ll also have a “snippets” folder full of paragraphs and sections I may end up using or either deleted from the story and still may end up using. Research material goes in other folders, both physical and electronic.
Since I started out wrting books longhand, sharp pencils at the ready, I often revert to this method when I don’t feel like sitting at the computer. So I also have spiral-bound notebooks in the bedroom and livingroom, often with plot points or big chunks of story in them.
I’ve written some books—certainly whole chapters—in a fairly smooth flow from start to finish, which means I’ve bypassed all or most of the above nonsense. Wish I could be that lucky all the time!
When I write, I usually don’t draft anything. I have an idea, write it down, and when I get to writing it I just let the story do whatever it wants. I write for fun, so, not really any profit besides getting good reviews on the blog ‘cause I post my short stories sometimes. I won’t claim I’m good or anything, it’s just something I enjoy. The blog kind of has drafts. I write it out and then edit. Sometimes I’m too tired to edit and just publish, but for the most part I edit. Same goes for short stories. I always edit before I get my Sis or Mom to read it. I don’t like to let them see anything that I’m not happy with and when I get them to read it it’s because I just need a second opinion. By the way, love the blog. I’ve been reading it for a while and just haven’t commented. You guys rock! Thanks for giving me some blogging standards. You and Lilith Saintcrow are my blogging gods. Keep up the good work!
~Embrace away if your process happens to be that of a plotter. But if you’re a pantser . . . learn to plot now.~
Then I’m in terrible trouble.
Whatever works for you is correct. If it’s not working, try another way until you find what works for you.
My first draft is a POS. And the first draft is unquestionably the hardest part of the process for me—probably because my process is organic. But I couldn’t outline a book or seriously plot out in advance if you held a gun to my head.
AFTER the first draft I know the story, the characters, the rhythm of the book. During the first draft I often don’t know what’s going to happen in the next sentence much less what’s going to happen in the next chapter. Nobody, NOBODY sees my first draft. It’s ugly and rough and clunky and embarassing. But during that process I find the story and fall in love with the characters.
I have a writer pal who outlines chapter by chapter, another who does a general outline, another who perfects as she goes so essentially writes one draft, yet another who uses color-coded index cards for . . . I don’t know exactly as I find that confusing. They’re all correct.
So am I.
~Everyone says: Embrace your process. It’s your process. You write the way you write. There’s nothing you can do about it, it’s just the way your brain works.
I’m sorry, but this is Bullshit. And IMO it’s bad advice. ~
Don’t mean to pick on you but here’s what I think you should try to understand. The above may be bad advice—for you. It may be in order to be productive and creative you need the structure of plotting/outlining. Others need a looser process in order to be productive and creative. My friend needs her color-coded index cards. She’d be lost without them.
There just is no right way, no wrong way. It would be very bad advice indeed if I insisted others must adopt my particular process, and it’s equally bad to insist others must adopt what you believe works for you.
I know many talk about the muse. They need The Muse. While for me? I think muse schmooze, I’m in charge here.
We’re all correct once again.
I’m only about 1/3 of the way through the first draft of my first novel, so I’m learning as I go. I’m one of those who has to outline; I know from past experience that if I don’t have a definite sense of where I’m going and what happens when, I’ll never finish the manuscript.
I started with my protagonists and a general idea of the plot, which I wrote up into a two-page treatment. Gradually I began to flesh the story out further, adding more characters and scenes and working out the details until I had a beginning, a middle, and an end. I then broke it down into chapters.
My outline is now eight pages long and contains notations on balancing character-driven scenes with action scenes, when to add backstory, and so on. As it’s a fairly complex murder mystery, I have also created a timeline to help me keep track of what happens when and to whom, and how much the various characters know about what’s going on.
As for my first draft, it’s currently in “get it down on paper no matter how much it sucks” mode. My first chapter, especially, is full of bracketed notations like [add dialog. here] and [watch motivation] and [work on bridge scene]. I edit constantly while writing, going back and fixing inconsistencies and plot holes when I notice them, adding or changing dialogue, deleting scenes that make no sense, and making my narrative style more casual and spontaneous. (Yeah, I know that last sounds like a contradiction, but my instinct is toward Lovecraftian and quasi-Victorian purple prose, and my narrator is a tough, hard-boiled Noo Yawk dame circa 1947.)
While my plot was more or less set before I began to write, my characters are evolving organically and starting to surprise me in ways I hadn’t anticipated, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes less so. foreign47: the way my manuscript will probably sound when I go back and read the finished product.
-Liz
Usually my first scene comes to me very clearly and I know that’s what I want to write about; usually I want to write about characters caught up in a particular situation or event and I’m not sure what will happen but details will unfold as I get to know my characters. Usually, but not always, that remains as my opening scene.
I’m having to sell on proposal now (not that that’s a bad thing; it’s a very, very good thing) but I have to dredge up some sort of plot and write a bare bones synopsis rather than just start and frolic, although I always found that at some point I needed to know how it ended. One of my favorite synopsis phrases is After many exciting [insert adjective of choice] events… which means basically I am clueless about what actually happens at this point. For that reason, my synopses tend to be short and vague.
First draft is usually pretty clean. I may shift things around, fiddle with words, and stick in a few extra bits n pieces or change scenes to a different POV later but my first draft is pretty much the finished product.
I’m always fascinated to see how it works for other writers. I love the idea of using a spreadsheet or storyboards, but the only times I’ve ever tried I just became so depressed and scared I gave up.
True, but first you have to work with an editor or publishing house long enough for this to be true, which is basically what I said earlier . . . you can get to a point where this is true, but it’s not going to be true for the vast majority of us for quite a while. I think I could sell to my current editor with something like what you’re talking about, but not to a new editor or house.
It’s nice to hear how you write a short synopsis that captures the idea more than the specific plot. I’ll have try that, thanks for the tip.
I agree with Nora about individual process being right. And if ever stops working, then something else would be.
I’ve been with Penguin for about 14 months. That’s not an amazingly long time—I’m offering my personal experience as a counter to your assertion that a pantser must learn to plot to sell on proposal. I don’t claim my truths are universal; they primarily apply to me and my experience, but I’m happy if anyone else finds some value in how it’s been for me.
I cannot say how easy it would be to sell outside Penguin, but I do know it works for different editors / imprints. My first editor at Penguin was Anne Sowards from Ace, and we just sold a different genre project to Cindy Hwang of Berkley using the method I described above. If we hadn’t, we intended to widen the pitch, and the primary difference would’ve been that I would have written two more chapters for the partial. The proposal / synopsis aspect would have remained unchanged. But since I really wanted to sell to Berkley—and we did—I can’t report on how effective that theoretical pitch might have been.
No real outlining. Bare bones planning…usually more about the characters then where exactly the story itself will go. First draft usually very complete…but full of plot problems and dead ends that must be tweaked. Usually done after the second draft. Will do one more pass for spelling mistakes and a few awkward places I am not happy with.
For me, most of the work is in the first draft. It is like vomiting it out, but surprisingly readable. The books I spent the least amount of time worrying about, tend to turn out better.
**As for the comment about pantsters having to learn to plot…it is interesting how I can manage to write a blurb for a book after only having written part of it. And a very good blurb at that. From what I understand, you don’t have to 100% stick to what you’ve proposed to a publisher in that draft form.**
This is me, as well, with a caveat. At about six or seven chapters in, I start having snippets of ideas for later chapters, so in order not to forget them, I’ll start writing them down, which begets more ideas, etc., etc., and before I know it, I’ve got a chapter by chapter outline going until the end of the book. That’s always how my process has gone, which has actually been good practice for producing proposals. Given that all three books I’ve sold, I’ve sold on proposal, it must be a pretty good method for me.
For me, there’s pretty much no such thing as a first draft, unless you mean “only draft,” or even better, “only shot at it.” If you’re reading it, it’s pretty much my first, one, and only draft. In other words, I don’t draft (well, *almost* never). Yeah, yeah, I know; it’s obvious.
I don’t really fit the mold of either a “plotter” or “pantser”. I am a difficult mix between the two.
I will get an idea (usually in the shower, the car, or 5 minutes before sleep) and if I remember it long enough I write it down in a note book. Over time the original idea grows until I have point A and Z pretty solid, and maybe G, H, M, P, and X as well. Then I start to write.
The hardest part for me is that I seem to trip over what others might see as small details. A little fact that Darlene would place in a bracket (note to self, remember this idea) will hold me up for days. Lately I have been trying to figure out where in the plot I went wrong because I am just plain old stuck.
Another thing… I need to be completely relaxed to write. Noise is ok, but the more stressed I am the harder it is for me to write.
Most books, I’m not exactly sure where I’m going, I just start writing the story, kind of the bare-bones thing NR mentioned.
But I don’t wait until I’ve finished that rough draft to flesh it out, I do it as I go, going back and rereading what I wrote the day before and expanding.
When I was in Dallas last year at RWA I had an intersting conversation with a fellow writer at an event. She asked me if I was a plotter or pantster. I told her pantster all the way and she told me she’d done that and was now going to try a plotting method for her next book. I told her when I did any real plotting or planning I’d burn myself out on the book and didn’t want to write it but that it worked for some people.
I think the writing method chooses the writer. (And yes, I got that bit from the first Harry Potter book. Remember the scene in the wand shop and what Mr. Olivander said: “The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter.”) I think you can try different things but when you find something that works, go with it.
Definitely in the “Embrace your process camp.”
I write out of order, favorite parts first. I leave enormous holes, to plug up later. I repeat myself, knowing I will have to cut. I am not afraid to writer utter crap, if it will get me to my daily page or word deadline, so I can quit and go to the movies.
But always remember to edit that back out. M & B got a rough draft of my first book, because it got submitted without warning, when I won the GH. They were so polite and gentle, in that first revision letter, letting me I had to cut the reference to buggering farm animals…
WTF?
I wrote that on a Friday afternoon, when I wanted to get done and have a weekend. It was never supposed to end up on an editors desk with an implied beastiality. Do not make this mistake
Anyway. When I’m 10 or 20,000 words short, I declare it a finished rough draft. I start reading from the beginning, and praying that the final scenes will come to me.
I spend as much time as I can in swimming pools, bath tubs and hot tubs. It’s something about water, I swear. Very good for working out plot problems.
I usually have to make 2 complete passes through the work, before I’ve stopped trying to avoid fixing the things I screwed up in the first draft. But then, it’s done.
And I think the whole plotting and synop thing depends on the editor. M & B has accepted verbal pitches over cocktails. A couple of 2 paragraph e-synops. A “It’s set at Christmas, there are 2 couples. And a bet.” synop.
And in one case, no synop at all. Send it when it’s done.
I ususally contact them if I have a problem, or know that I’m doing something they might not like. But other than that, they’ve been very hands-off-the-process.
I luuuuuuv them.
Spew alerts, please! I’m going to print that out and put it over my monitor.
Do not make this mistake
This thread has been wonderfully helpful. I’ve been dithering about for over a month on my latest attempt at a novel, and making no progress, because I thought I was doing it wrong. Today, I opened a new file and just started writing, and it’s FLOWING! It doesn’t make a lick of sense, and I have no idea where in the story it’s going to appear, but my heroine finally has developed a personality, rather than a catalogue of traits and interests.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your processes.
Aout two years ago I was at a rock concert and had an idea that kicked me in the ass hard enough to start writing my first novel. I had a beginning, and I had the ending. I knew I wanted to build a world around this idea, and have the world be interesting enough to sustain multiple books, should I manage to get the first one published.
Phase 1: I started waking up 2 hours earlier each day to write, going to a coffeeshop with a notebook, a favorite pen, and an iPod. I just puked on the pages. I just wrote and wrote, filling two wirebound notebooks with thoughts, snippets, partial scenes. Questions, and possible answers to those questions. Wrote whatever struck my fancy, whatever interested me most when I sat down to write that day. The more I wrote, the more things started crystalizing: the world I was building. The hero and heroine and their families. A complex, fucked-up villain. Their motivations, their backstories, their conflicts. About once a week I’d bring along a book on craft, read it, and write a scene using some aspect of what I was reading – always something I knew I could use.
Phase 2: I then went through my notebooks, and using voice recognition software, transcribed anything that even vaguely resembled a scene, then created a notecard and an individual word processing file for each – no editing allowed. I had about 60 cards, about 190 ms pages. I put the cards in a sequence which made sense, which made my raw outline. The plot started firming up, and the holes became more apparent. I then pulled out my notebook again, and started writing scenes to fill the plot holes. (If you can’t tell by now, I think better on paper, and ‘m a really crappy typist.)
Phase 3: I finished the first draft about 6 months ago and am now into revisions. I’m trying to revise a chapter a week, but it’s slow going. Sometimes I feel like I could use a seeing eye dog. 😉
One thing that I think I can safely say is that the exploration portion of my next book should take me less time – in part because the worldbuilding and high-level character development to support my next books has already been completed as part of this effort. But first I have to finish this ms, start the adventure of pitching and such, and start writing the next story.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your processes. I’ve learned some new things I might try, and I’m also reassured that I’m not completely clattering off the tracks here.
If I get a great idea, and I’m in the right frame of mind to write, I can’t start until I have the first lines of it figured out. I have to have the hook. Then I write the entire thing, pausing when I can’t think of the right word, and if it’s minor enough, I put in the closest thing I can to what I wanted to say and then go back later to fix it. If I get stuck on something major enough, like exactly how to phrase the hero’s next words to the heroine, I can’t proceed; I have to figure it out before I can do anything else. I take breaks every two or three pages and read back over everything, correcting anything that doesn’t work in the current flow, that kind of thing. I try to finish an entire story within a few days, if it’s fairly short, because I find it hard to go back later and recapture exactly the same tone I had when I was writing the bulk of the text.
If I’m not quite in the right frame of mind, I’ll sit down and write anyway, with the understanding that I will probably throw that draft out and rewrite it later, entirely.
So, basically, I’m a first draft/only draft writer, because I tend to perfect everything and edit myself while I’m writing. I find it mind-boggling to consider writing the first draft just to get it out there, because if I do that, all I do is write a detailed outline so I can go back to it later and give it the attention it needs. It’s all about the flow, for me, and if the flow isn’t right, if the language isn’t coming, then the rest of the story can’t come, either.
I fly into the mist with my first draft. I don’t do plot charts or write on white boards or organize scenes or break my book into three acts.
The main prep work that I do is muse about the characters a lot. I need a good, solid fix on who they are, what they want, why they do what they do, etc. More of their personalities gets revealed while I wrote the first draft, but knowing them well before I start is key. That’s what makes the dialogue sound right, the actions and reactions authentic, and the emotions rich.
Once I actually start writing, I keep writing until the end. The story flows much more smoothly and realistically. It’s also the only way that I can shut up the internal critic/editor.
With my first attempt at a manuscript, I rewrote the first three chapters over and over. Then I had a Nora-induced lightbulb moment. At a chapter writing conference back in 1995, Nora gave a talk in which she said, “You have no business going back and writing chapters one through three if you haven’t written four through ten and beyond.” She also said that the only page she can’t fix is a blank one.
Words to remember. Thanks, Nora!
Hi there! I’m one half of a writing team. We’ve known each other since high school (arts school, both majored in creative writing, my other half was also into theater) and have been writing together ever since then. We’ve got one massive story idea that, if ever completely written and published, outlines to to twelve novels…
In the meantime, for practice we wrote something in fanfiction. If you think that doesn’t count, friends, let me say we wrote an 84-chapter, 485,000 novel, publishing a chapter EVERY WEEK. It was insane. And we went from no outline. *is still horrified*
We talked about the story a lot before we got started. And we talked a lot about plot details as we were writing – some things changed (including a character who we were gonna kill off but ultimately kept alive, and started a whole new ‘ship for the fandom) but the main arc never did.
We’d write a chapter, send it off to our beta readers, and start on the next one. We talked to the betas about where we were going, but as far as plotting out what scene should be where, whose perspective we should use, that was nearly all seat-of-the-pants.
Basically, we did a first draft that was almost final-draft quality. Then both of us combed over it one more time before sending it off to the betas. When it came back, we did revisions and posted it. Generally, the turnaround between finishing the first draft of a chapter and posting it was about two days, tops.
It was a crazy schedule but we got to see reader reaction to the last chapter while we worked on the current one, which helped us clarify and reader misconceptions. And it was pretty darn inspiring, too. Knowing that several hundred people were on the edge of their seats waiting for the next chapter really motivated us.
Now, for the sequel (we learned a lot from that but are still schooling ourselves), we’re trying to write an outline of sorts. It’s far more detailed than you’d expect; basically a very rough, choppy draft of the story, with notes to ourselves scattered through it. At one point during the original story, we kind of spun out into just doing “5,000 words a week” without advancing the plot much. And we kept having great ideas that we would include and our readers would love, but we weren’t getting any closer to the end. We want to prevent that in the sequel, hence the outline.
Whew, that’s a LOT. Anyway, based on what we learn doing the sequel, it’ll be time to pick back up the huge novel series we’ve been discussing since we met back in high school, and get that written and published.
I forgot to mention we both have full-time jobs, so that fanfic novel was written in our off hours. The general rule was 1,000 words a night, and then on deadline night we’d sometimes rush out 4,000 more words to finish. *headdesk*
efforts93. Maybe I shoulda made an effort to make this shorter…