I’m deep into a revision that’s so extreme it might as well be a first draft. I started with a new pitch, moved on to a beat sheet for structure, expanded the beat sheet to 40 scenes--and started drafting. Along the way, I’ve mostly abandoned the 40 beats--too much wishful thinking, not enough character-driven plotting. I’d love for the draft to move faster, but every time I pick up the writing pace, I lose the character’s voice. So--now slogging through a swampy middle. I push forward by dictating/telling the story to myself (using the microphone/voice to text in Pages) in the voice of the protagonist, with a emphasis on how he’s feeling. How’s it going? Better than nothing!
I relate to this SO much. I got about 200 pages into the third draft of my book when I finally came to terms with the fact that nothing was working. Around this time, I had just finished three craft books, and I decided to throw out my 200-page draft and rewrite the story following the structure from The Story Solution beat by beat. I was basically writing a first draft again, but a lot of good came out of the ashes of all the work I threw out.
I've also notice that I lose the voice of the story when I'm drafting fast, too. Instead of fighting that, I've been embracing that as part of the process. But this means I typically have to do three line edit draft after the story structure is finalized. Those drafts are (1) a voiceless fast draft, (2) a handwritten rewrite that discovers the voice, (3) a typed up rewrite that focuses on polishing the voice. It's time consuming, but this is what works for me for now. I'm hoping that I discover a more time-efficient strategy down the line.
I love your method of dictating the story. I'm very interested in trying that out!
The most interesting result of dictating the story is all the rationalization and denial that comes out of it. Yesterday, he said, "I ain't afraid of the truth!" HA! My character can't help trying to justify himself.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Kat. It helps keep me moving forward. I am in full stagnation mode right now. Other things in life are taking up more brain and creative space than I have for everything. I want to write, but every time I sit down some other shiny thing distracts me. My writing is primarily for ME, so when I have responsibilities or things I want to do for OTHERS I do those first and am often left with a nearly empty creative bucket at the end of the day. I have had a few glimmers of inspiration, but usually when I'm half asleep and promise myself I'll remember them in the morning, and we all know how that goes.
Anyway...I do have a question that isn't exactly about drafts, but maybe for a future AMA.
How do you feel about prologues? I have never written one, but I am wondering if it might be a good idea for this particular story. I'm not sure, but I had made the decision to tell this story only from the protagonist's POV, but my antagonist is more interesting. He's wittier, he's manipulative and doesn't even realize it, and I enjoy him. I feel like I need more of his voice. So I thought about a prologue from his POV...or maybe I'll just tell the story from both POVs. That thought has been bubbling and I keep pushing it down, and I think it's part of my stagnation. Anyway. That's where I'm at.
I hear you, and I see you. It’s hard to balance our creative lives with our regular lives, and it’s 100% okay if we’re in a period where regular life is taking priority. It’s helpful for me to think of these moments not as a period of stagnation but as a period where I’m nurturing a different aspect of my life.
I love this question because it sparks a lot of debate. My answer is simple and probably underwhelming: prologues are fine if you just don’t call them a prologue. In general, prologues have a lot of prejudice against them because they often feel like “warm up writing” in that they stall the reader’s entry into the real story. For this reason, a lot of people recommend against using prologues at all. Some might even say that if the rest of the book makes sense without the prologue, you should delete it outright.
But at the same time, a prologue can serve an important purpose by giving the reader access to content that might color the rest of their reading. But this access should be provided with intention. That said, there are valid reasons to use a prologue, but there a lot of readers and industry professionals who roll their eyes at prologues. With that in mind, I recommend never using the word prologue in the manuscript itself and starting the book however you want to start it.
From what you’ve described with your book, it sounds like it might be worth exploring several chapters in the antagonist’s POV. I recommend trying this out because the opening pages of a novel teach the reader how to read the book. This means that the first few chapters create an expectation. The human brain is constantly looking for patterns, and our attention is piqued when patterns are broken. Whenever a pattern breaks, we derive meaning from that break. This, to me, is the heart of story. Effective stories essentially answer these questions: what do the events in the story mean to the protagonist? Why do their feelings about each and every event in the story matter?
If a novel starts with a chapter (or a prologue) in one characters POV and switches to a different character in the next chapter, the book establishes an expectation that it will eventually return to the first character’s POV. If we never return to that first character’s POV, the reader will search for meaning in that decision. But if there’s no concrete intention behind that choice, the subverted expectation may feel meaningless to the reader and that can be a frustrating experience. All this is to say that I’m suggesting trying out multiple chapters in the antagonist’s POV for a craft reason. But it also might be a fun writing exercise to try out to refresh your writing life.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply, Kat. Balancing the many parts of our lives is difficult and it helps to know that it's normal and okay. It sounds weird to write that because I know that, but hearing it from someone who isn't me, helps.
I think I am just going to jump in and give my antagonist his voice. The first time I wrote this book, he had a majority voice, but I didn't want it to be his story. I've made significant changes to the storyline and expanded ideas so that I can spend more time telling more of the story of the lives of my little cast of characters but Adam still keeps popping up. So, fine, I'll put him in. :)
Thank you for highlighting the idea that people look for patterns. I do it myself when I read and I get frustrated if there isn't a good reason that the pattern I'm expecting isn't there. This will help me figure out how to put together the POVs.
Thank you again, Kat. I appreciate your time and your thought-provoking posts and replies.
This was great, Kat. I just subscribed for a year!
After taking year to complete one draft of the first novel I've ever written, I fast drafted 50K of a new novel in 14 days. The first book went to workshop before I finished which messed up the flow and delayed everything. Not editing definitely helped for the 2nd book.
I discovery wrote the 1st book because outlining made me stop writing altogether. For the 2nd book, I wrote one to three sentence summaries for each chapter, but only an act in advance. I'm trying to find a happy medium in the 3 book LOL.
I had a similar experience with workshopping an in-progress first draft of a novel when I was in college. It was a pretty negative experience for me. It took the wind out of my sails, and I shelved the novel soon after the workshop meeting. Now, I basically don't let anyone see my work until I've finished the first draft.
I'm excited for you and your writing life! There's so much fun to be had as we discover our processes as writers.
I’m deep into a revision that’s so extreme it might as well be a first draft. I started with a new pitch, moved on to a beat sheet for structure, expanded the beat sheet to 40 scenes--and started drafting. Along the way, I’ve mostly abandoned the 40 beats--too much wishful thinking, not enough character-driven plotting. I’d love for the draft to move faster, but every time I pick up the writing pace, I lose the character’s voice. So--now slogging through a swampy middle. I push forward by dictating/telling the story to myself (using the microphone/voice to text in Pages) in the voice of the protagonist, with a emphasis on how he’s feeling. How’s it going? Better than nothing!
I relate to this SO much. I got about 200 pages into the third draft of my book when I finally came to terms with the fact that nothing was working. Around this time, I had just finished three craft books, and I decided to throw out my 200-page draft and rewrite the story following the structure from The Story Solution beat by beat. I was basically writing a first draft again, but a lot of good came out of the ashes of all the work I threw out.
I've also notice that I lose the voice of the story when I'm drafting fast, too. Instead of fighting that, I've been embracing that as part of the process. But this means I typically have to do three line edit draft after the story structure is finalized. Those drafts are (1) a voiceless fast draft, (2) a handwritten rewrite that discovers the voice, (3) a typed up rewrite that focuses on polishing the voice. It's time consuming, but this is what works for me for now. I'm hoping that I discover a more time-efficient strategy down the line.
I love your method of dictating the story. I'm very interested in trying that out!
The most interesting result of dictating the story is all the rationalization and denial that comes out of it. Yesterday, he said, "I ain't afraid of the truth!" HA! My character can't help trying to justify himself.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Kat. It helps keep me moving forward. I am in full stagnation mode right now. Other things in life are taking up more brain and creative space than I have for everything. I want to write, but every time I sit down some other shiny thing distracts me. My writing is primarily for ME, so when I have responsibilities or things I want to do for OTHERS I do those first and am often left with a nearly empty creative bucket at the end of the day. I have had a few glimmers of inspiration, but usually when I'm half asleep and promise myself I'll remember them in the morning, and we all know how that goes.
Anyway...I do have a question that isn't exactly about drafts, but maybe for a future AMA.
How do you feel about prologues? I have never written one, but I am wondering if it might be a good idea for this particular story. I'm not sure, but I had made the decision to tell this story only from the protagonist's POV, but my antagonist is more interesting. He's wittier, he's manipulative and doesn't even realize it, and I enjoy him. I feel like I need more of his voice. So I thought about a prologue from his POV...or maybe I'll just tell the story from both POVs. That thought has been bubbling and I keep pushing it down, and I think it's part of my stagnation. Anyway. That's where I'm at.
I hear you, and I see you. It’s hard to balance our creative lives with our regular lives, and it’s 100% okay if we’re in a period where regular life is taking priority. It’s helpful for me to think of these moments not as a period of stagnation but as a period where I’m nurturing a different aspect of my life.
I love this question because it sparks a lot of debate. My answer is simple and probably underwhelming: prologues are fine if you just don’t call them a prologue. In general, prologues have a lot of prejudice against them because they often feel like “warm up writing” in that they stall the reader’s entry into the real story. For this reason, a lot of people recommend against using prologues at all. Some might even say that if the rest of the book makes sense without the prologue, you should delete it outright.
But at the same time, a prologue can serve an important purpose by giving the reader access to content that might color the rest of their reading. But this access should be provided with intention. That said, there are valid reasons to use a prologue, but there a lot of readers and industry professionals who roll their eyes at prologues. With that in mind, I recommend never using the word prologue in the manuscript itself and starting the book however you want to start it.
From what you’ve described with your book, it sounds like it might be worth exploring several chapters in the antagonist’s POV. I recommend trying this out because the opening pages of a novel teach the reader how to read the book. This means that the first few chapters create an expectation. The human brain is constantly looking for patterns, and our attention is piqued when patterns are broken. Whenever a pattern breaks, we derive meaning from that break. This, to me, is the heart of story. Effective stories essentially answer these questions: what do the events in the story mean to the protagonist? Why do their feelings about each and every event in the story matter?
If a novel starts with a chapter (or a prologue) in one characters POV and switches to a different character in the next chapter, the book establishes an expectation that it will eventually return to the first character’s POV. If we never return to that first character’s POV, the reader will search for meaning in that decision. But if there’s no concrete intention behind that choice, the subverted expectation may feel meaningless to the reader and that can be a frustrating experience. All this is to say that I’m suggesting trying out multiple chapters in the antagonist’s POV for a craft reason. But it also might be a fun writing exercise to try out to refresh your writing life.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply, Kat. Balancing the many parts of our lives is difficult and it helps to know that it's normal and okay. It sounds weird to write that because I know that, but hearing it from someone who isn't me, helps.
I think I am just going to jump in and give my antagonist his voice. The first time I wrote this book, he had a majority voice, but I didn't want it to be his story. I've made significant changes to the storyline and expanded ideas so that I can spend more time telling more of the story of the lives of my little cast of characters but Adam still keeps popping up. So, fine, I'll put him in. :)
Thank you for highlighting the idea that people look for patterns. I do it myself when I read and I get frustrated if there isn't a good reason that the pattern I'm expecting isn't there. This will help me figure out how to put together the POVs.
Thank you again, Kat. I appreciate your time and your thought-provoking posts and replies.
So impressive! I’m looking forward to reading your novel.
Outstanding information!!
Thanks for reading!
This was great, Kat. I just subscribed for a year!
After taking year to complete one draft of the first novel I've ever written, I fast drafted 50K of a new novel in 14 days. The first book went to workshop before I finished which messed up the flow and delayed everything. Not editing definitely helped for the 2nd book.
I discovery wrote the 1st book because outlining made me stop writing altogether. For the 2nd book, I wrote one to three sentence summaries for each chapter, but only an act in advance. I'm trying to find a happy medium in the 3 book LOL.
Welcome, Shardai! We're so glad you're here.
I had a similar experience with workshopping an in-progress first draft of a novel when I was in college. It was a pretty negative experience for me. It took the wind out of my sails, and I shelved the novel soon after the workshop meeting. Now, I basically don't let anyone see my work until I've finished the first draft.
I'm excited for you and your writing life! There's so much fun to be had as we discover our processes as writers.