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writercisesOriginal posting Sept. 22, 2017
Writer's Digest, February 2001, has an article by William Hutchinson on pages 36-38 and 53, talking about your second draft. As the subtitle puts it, "Spilling a story out of your heart and onto the page is easy sometimes. Putting your thoughts into usable form can be the tricky part." But William provides you with a guide…
How do you sort out the first draft and turn it into a great second draft? Well, here's one approach.
1. Start with 250
Do a story summary. If you've got several stories or your story has lots of twists and turns, you might expand the summary to 500 words, but keep it simple. You're looking for the story inside your plot.
2. Set the total count
Now, how many words do you think it takes to tell your story the way you want to tell it. You may have overwritten, and need to cut a lot, or you might need to add. Decide how long you think your story should be.
3. Count chapters
All right, now you know how many words. But how many chapters? This is partly style, genre, and what kind of a story you're trying to tell. Some people like one page chapters, others have long chapters with many scenes and points of view. Thrillers are likely to have short chapters, romance longer chapters. Action? Brief chapters. Character driven? Probably longer meditative chapters. Estimation? Say 2500 words per chapter, so divide your length by that size and see what you come up with.
4. Separate scenes
Most chapters have more than one scene. Three or four chapters is fairly common. Go ahead and lay out how you think the chapters break up into scenes.
"If you're lucky, your first draft will reveal the story you want to tell; not necessarily the story you set out to tell, but the story that has emerged in the writing. Outlining means focusing in on that single thread, recognizing extraneous plot twists and characters for the distractions they truly are and ruthlessly eliminating them, no matter how painful that may be."
5. List your scenes
Make a written list of the scenes in your current manuscript. Check for good scene construction. Does each scene have a beginning, middle, and end? Does it start with action? Does it clearly and quickly establish where we are and who is present?
Now check whether the scene advances the plot, establishes character, and describes setting.
6. Add and subtract
Now, fit that list of scenes into the distribution of scenes over chapters that you have developed. Cut, combine, add, shift the order. Eliminate scenes about people, places, and things that don't match the story you're telling now. Subplots about people that aren't really important to your story? Cut them. Scenic travel that doesn't do anything? Hop a jet plane, and get to the action.
7. Eliminate repetition
One or two good scenes are better than several mediocre scenes – get rid of the extras! If your characters keep doing the same things, show us the best version or two, and then something new.
8. Consolidate
Combining scenes and characters can give your scenes richer texture. One outstanding secondary character will stick in the readers mind, where several bit players just vanish.
9. Build bridges
You may need some bridge scenes to advance the story. Go ahead!
10. Count to three
Construct your outline, using the classic three-part dramatic structure. The first act is about the first third of your manuscript, and it's the character section. Lots of description, get us into that world, and quote tantalizing nibbles of plot." Development and exposition of characters is what you should be focusing on here. The second act? About half of your manuscript. Conflict! Complications. Plot driven, lots of action, keep it moving. The third act, the resolution, is your shortest. 15 to 20% of the pages. "When the monster dies, the movie's over."
So that's it. Then you get to write that second draft! Yay.
Practice? Well, take something you've written, a first draft that you haven't cleaned up, and walked through the steps. Here's the short version that William provided in a sidebar:
1. Summarize your story in 250 words.
2. Set the total word length of the book.
3. Divide the number of words by 2500 to decide how many chapters you need.
4. Divide your chapters into scenes.
5. Make a list of the scenes in the current draft.
6. Cut, combine, add, and reorder scenes.
7. Eliminate repetition.
8. Make sure scenes and characters work together.
9. Create bridge scenes as needed.
10. Make sure you have a beginning, middle, and end.
10 steps, and you're on your way to your second draft.
Write?
tink
Writer's Digest, February 2001, has an article by William Hutchinson on pages 36-38 and 53, talking about your second draft. As the subtitle puts it, "Spilling a story out of your heart and onto the page is easy sometimes. Putting your thoughts into usable form can be the tricky part." But William provides you with a guide…
How do you sort out the first draft and turn it into a great second draft? Well, here's one approach.
1. Start with 250
Do a story summary. If you've got several stories or your story has lots of twists and turns, you might expand the summary to 500 words, but keep it simple. You're looking for the story inside your plot.
2. Set the total count
Now, how many words do you think it takes to tell your story the way you want to tell it. You may have overwritten, and need to cut a lot, or you might need to add. Decide how long you think your story should be.
3. Count chapters
All right, now you know how many words. But how many chapters? This is partly style, genre, and what kind of a story you're trying to tell. Some people like one page chapters, others have long chapters with many scenes and points of view. Thrillers are likely to have short chapters, romance longer chapters. Action? Brief chapters. Character driven? Probably longer meditative chapters. Estimation? Say 2500 words per chapter, so divide your length by that size and see what you come up with.
4. Separate scenes
Most chapters have more than one scene. Three or four chapters is fairly common. Go ahead and lay out how you think the chapters break up into scenes.
"If you're lucky, your first draft will reveal the story you want to tell; not necessarily the story you set out to tell, but the story that has emerged in the writing. Outlining means focusing in on that single thread, recognizing extraneous plot twists and characters for the distractions they truly are and ruthlessly eliminating them, no matter how painful that may be."
5. List your scenes
Make a written list of the scenes in your current manuscript. Check for good scene construction. Does each scene have a beginning, middle, and end? Does it start with action? Does it clearly and quickly establish where we are and who is present?
Now check whether the scene advances the plot, establishes character, and describes setting.
6. Add and subtract
Now, fit that list of scenes into the distribution of scenes over chapters that you have developed. Cut, combine, add, shift the order. Eliminate scenes about people, places, and things that don't match the story you're telling now. Subplots about people that aren't really important to your story? Cut them. Scenic travel that doesn't do anything? Hop a jet plane, and get to the action.
7. Eliminate repetition
One or two good scenes are better than several mediocre scenes – get rid of the extras! If your characters keep doing the same things, show us the best version or two, and then something new.
8. Consolidate
Combining scenes and characters can give your scenes richer texture. One outstanding secondary character will stick in the readers mind, where several bit players just vanish.
9. Build bridges
You may need some bridge scenes to advance the story. Go ahead!
10. Count to three
Construct your outline, using the classic three-part dramatic structure. The first act is about the first third of your manuscript, and it's the character section. Lots of description, get us into that world, and quote tantalizing nibbles of plot." Development and exposition of characters is what you should be focusing on here. The second act? About half of your manuscript. Conflict! Complications. Plot driven, lots of action, keep it moving. The third act, the resolution, is your shortest. 15 to 20% of the pages. "When the monster dies, the movie's over."
So that's it. Then you get to write that second draft! Yay.
Practice? Well, take something you've written, a first draft that you haven't cleaned up, and walked through the steps. Here's the short version that William provided in a sidebar:
1. Summarize your story in 250 words.
2. Set the total word length of the book.
3. Divide the number of words by 2500 to decide how many chapters you need.
4. Divide your chapters into scenes.
5. Make a list of the scenes in the current draft.
6. Cut, combine, add, and reorder scenes.
7. Eliminate repetition.
8. Make sure scenes and characters work together.
9. Create bridge scenes as needed.
10. Make sure you have a beginning, middle, and end.
10 steps, and you're on your way to your second draft.
Write?
tink