Getting through that critical first draft.
It’s so thrilling, this author world I have entered. Vivatera has only been out for a few weeks and I have already had opportunities to meet many fun people, a lot of them writers, just like me. Some have asked how I had time to write an entire book, and to be honest, I don’t know how I did it either. But it’s a passion that I never stop doing— it keeps me sane.
It’s a fine line you walk when you become a writer, teetering between reality and insanity, but that’s what makes it so much fun
Many of these same writers have asked for writing advice, telling me about the amazing tales or ideas for their own books, especially the less experienced teen writers. I’m always impressed with the amazing stories inside their heads. What I like to tell them— it’s not just writing a book, it’s finishing the story.
So many writers fall into a rewriting conundrum. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night with an idea so brilliant that you actually get out of bed to write out the foggy details in your crinkled, blue steno pad. Then you’re so excited, you make some hot cocoa, open up your laptop, and without knowing it, it’s morning and the kids are bugging you about breakfast.
The story has such momentum, you spend a good portion of your off -time writing and now you’re a good five chapters down. Now you’ve hit a turning point of your story. The complexity starts to show and you start to worry that it’s not good enough. You think, “I should just go back through the beginning again, just to make sure it sounds right.”
And so you start again, reworking the words again . . . and again . . . until the first five chapters no longer looks like the original morning idea, but more like a rehash of your college thesis, and now you hate it.
This is typical and I think we have all gone through this. Complexity happens.
My advice is DON’T GO BACK! As bad as you want to, don’t do it. The difference between me and any of these struggling writers is I finished, I continued on and finished the story. I didn’t worry about the first threads of the story. I kept writing with my ideas fresh, letting the story take me on the adventure. I didn’t look back until I finished.
This is not without outlining and character development, which is essential, I just didn’t rework what I had intended at the first.
This is how I developed my writing philosophies.
First you need “Bones”— the bare, feeble structure of the story, raw and untouched. This is a rare, beautiful thing. This is the moment when I first finish the manuscript and take myself out to a Brazilian restaurant to celebrate. I actually finished something. Here in the “Bones” are the connecting points to help hold the story together; the characters acting as joints moving the plot in different directions, combined with the happy accidents that came along the way. This is my first draft.
The second time through the story is where I fill in the “Muscle.” This is where I add strength to the words. I focus on sentence structure and word play. This is also where I experiment with characters. I like to let the characters react as they would, according to their own personality. I let their dialog expand and take off like a situational comedy; just letting it play out and see what evolves.
This is also a good time to ask questions. You know that the character needs to turn right to get away from the bad guy . . . but what if they turned left??? Hmmm . . .. Change it up. Experiment. Add strength. This is my second draft.
The last, but not final, is the “Skin.” Just like creating a life that needs to survive without you, there needs to be a polished skin that holds your creation together. This is where I look at my manuscript with a critical eye; editing what is critical to the story and what should be axed. I smooth out the imperfections and pluck a few eyebrows.
It’s hard sometimes to see the imperfections when you love your creation so much, and that is where good editors come in. But as the creator, that is not your concern right now. What you need to do is get your manuscript up on its legs, strong enough to stand on its own.
So, to any of my rookie writing friends, I just want to tell you, NEVER LOOK BACK, ONLY FORWARD. Keep your ideas fresh just like that early morning.
Don’t look back on those first rough chapters as a downfall of your manuscript. I have confidence that the second draft will bring out the true creativity of your work and breathe incredible life into your writing. The little life you are creating is depending on you to give it the structure it needs to stand.
Author Candace J. Thomas lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband, two daughters, and tailless cat. Her book, Vivatera, a YA fantasy, is currently available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.