š My Negative First, Zeroth, First and Second Drafts
Come along and help me grind my artisanal story sausages.
I know itās different for every person, but for me, my problem is not coming up with ideas. Mais non, non, non, ma chĆ©rieā¦ce n'est pas mon problĆØme. š·
MY problem, always, is turning the idea into a bonafide STORY.
Sure, the story is about <idea I just had>. But what is it REALLY about? For me, this is where the real challengeāand the real funābegin. (Yes, okay, revision CAN be funābut for me, revisionās more of a satisfying āit felt satisfying to clean up my deskā kind of fun, vs. the feral, letās-go-berserk-in-the-candy-store fun that ideating the story usually is.)
Iāve already talked (perhaps too much) about my typical workday and workspace, Commonplace Book, Stuff I Find Hilarious mini-notebook, and index card system. Thatās all fine and dandy. But exactly, HOW do I write?
Well, here is what I doāand buckle up, buttercups, because I revel in overthinking itājust like I do with everything else. (What can I say? Itās my way.)
Preface: I type my drafts. Iāve heard the arguments about writing things longhand, but the simple truth is: my handwriting is a mess, and I type like the windāso I turn to the keyboard with zero regrets. I like to imagine Iām a fantastic guitarist, like Prince or Jack White, strumming my way into a new songās awesomeness via my keyboard. (NOTE: when itās time to reviseā¦I am all about thick stacks of print-outs and erasable Frixion pens.) STILL! Donāt mess with what works for you! The only rule of being a writer is that you writeānot how.
"The first draft is just you telling yourself the story." - Terry Pratchett
Well, apologies to Terry because my negative first draft is me telling myself the story. Yeah, technically, itās my first draftābut my first draft is my negative first draft. šCapiche?
My Negative First Draft
I open up a weird template I made myself, save a copy onto my desktop, and the first thing I do is (at the very bottom) try to tell myself the story in a modified Pixar-method way. This framework gets me to think through how to set the scene, escalate the tension, and find a new normal by the end. I write this out in simple bullet points because bullet points mean businessāand so do I!
This bullet-pointed mess becomes my -1 draft. I call it this because I havenāt done anything interesting with the structure, POV, or any actual āwritingā yet! At this point, itās just an unsubstantiated piece of poorly-told gossipānothing more, nothing less. But itās a super, super easy way to wade into the story. And thatās what I love about my negative first draft.
My Zeroth Draft
Next, I will try to adapt the story Iāve kinda told myself into a picture book format, using the spreads I already have in my templateāwhich are based on a self-ended, 32-page manuscript. (I donāt have to stick to this, of course, but itās where I like to start.) I go through and basically āvisualizeā the actual story and try to map out the spreadsāalmost as if I was dummying it. Instead of sketching and outlining with visuals, I outline with words. THE MC GETS ANGRY! I might tell myself on a spread.
This āscene-basedā version is my Zero Draft, and itās just as good as it soundsānot at all good. At this point, itās just a bunch of barked orders for future Elayneāand thatās what present-day-Elayne loves about the Zeroth draft! (Againāthe barriers! SO VERY LOW!)
My First Draft
Once I know what Iām trying to do in each scene, the funnest part happens: the attempt at writing! I decide what POV I want to try and just go for it. The main thing is to just. keep. going, even when (maybe especially when) I realize halfway that something wonāt work. Thatās okayāthatās why itās a draft! I let my freaky creative flag fly and turn off my editor brain. But I finish the draft to judge the whole thing before deciding the next step. Which is:
If itās a messy draft with promise, I create a folder with the MSās current title and put the file there. (Folders feel fantastic to me, so I use them like a gold-star reward.)
If itās too hot of a mess to deal with at present, I throw this new mutant document into an overflowing folder called GRAB BAG, which is where all my hot messes go to cool down. (Bad stories donāt GET their own folderāthatās how we do things in Crainland <whip sound>!) Sometimes, later, I find some good stuff in GRAB BAG to give another shot!
At this point, itās either in the GRAB BAG folder or its own folderāand if it has its own folder, I already like it. (Probably not the execution, yetābut the idea of it.) The named folders are my babies, and I love every kooky one.
My Second Through Twelve-Thousandth Drafts
My second draft is like the first one, only (usually) much better. Still, they all āworkā the same from this point on. I take the previous version, make a copy, and then name it TITLE NAME - current date, keeping it in its special little folder. Because I know what Iām going for (even if I havenāt managed much of it yet), Iāll write myself a pitch to keep the idea focused and slap it across the top of the document.**
Then I go in and try to rewrite all the things that arenāt working at all! Heaven!
Eventually, the story will beāwell, not perfectābut readable. Meaning even without the pitch, the average person could tell what I am going for, even if I havenāt quite gotten there yet. Only then will I start considering sharing it with a critique group or two, or three, or four. (This helps me avoid Frankenscript and keeps critiques relatively fresh.) Maybe Iāll even submit it to a publishing professional through coursework or a paid critique. But at this point, itās either a shareable draft or not. If itās not, it camps here until it is.
**At some point, I will make a physical dummy. But thatās a topic for another post.
Shareable Drafts
I want feedback on shareable drafts so I can hone and revise them until they are ready for my agent, Sean. Until then, things bounce back and forth between Drafts and Shareable Drafts, depending on if Iām revising from feedback or ready to share again.
Sean Drafts
The newest phase for the stories I love is sending them to Sean, hoping theyāll go on sub! But I chose Sean because of his editorial chops, and I know there will be further work to get these rough-cut diamonds to shine to their fullest potential. So Sean Drafts are things we are working on as a team: all with the goal of sharing them with editors as soon as they are truly ready. And hopefully, turning them into an actual bookā(eventually) at your favorite bookstore!
Of course, thereās more: editing doesnāt stop when an editor buys a manuscript!
But, until then, these are the many tiersāand tearsāof my drafting process. Itās just as glamorous as getting paper cuts, but thereās nothing else Iād rather doāand no other way Iād rather do it! After all, Iām doing these steps because I LOVE to do them! And I hope whatever system youāre usingāit helps you love your writing, too!
SYAC: once a STORY is in your head, however you do itāWRITER, GET IT WRITTEN!
Yours in starting to feel a draft,
Elayne
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Thank you for sharing your process! We have a lot of similar things - hello typing up drafts and naming file folders for drafts that make it past that initial idea stage ;) But, instead of going in āgrab bagā I try to have folders with categories, themes I keep coming back to like āsharingā will have a folder or type of stories like āghost storiesā will also have a folder. I often find that my titles stick too! And quite frequently Iāll think of a title first and the story will come from that. One thing I also like to do, since Iām an illustrator, is keep a special sketchbook for each project that gets to a certain point. In there, I can put notes, character sketches, scene ideas, thumbnails, jokes, etc. so when it comes time to dummy it up, a lot of ideas are right there on paper. And sketching helps me think and often goes hand in hand with revision. Loving these tips, and will incorporate the ones I donāt do to see if that helps!
I write an idea in story form, and then go back to revise arc and structure later, partly because I THINK I am thinking in PB, partly because I've never tried drafting into a dummy - take it back, I have, but it didn't turn into a whole story a fast as a write the full-blown idea has...It's really true, we're all different. But I want to know - when does it get a name/title? Draft zero or one?