Closing up a First Draft

Reaching that point on my current WIP, it seems like a good time to get a closer look. I mean, it's not like this isn't the 11th time I'm doing it, but quantity never makes it easier. Don't worry-- I also broke all the rules without intentionally rebelling against common sense.

There are stories that don't need planning, that just need you to sit your ass down and write, no going back to check on something you may have contradicted because that's what the first edit is for. Relax, enjoy the ride... If I ever thought this would be the time for my stories to do that, I was WRONG, SON! This story was all up in your everything and you got played!

Eh, no biggie if you have to change tact. I think the idea of that can cause block for some people, that they have to stop and change plans, that somehow it's a setback. Nah. I can tell you now that there is nothing better for time than stopping before you just keep kicking loose dirt over a hole and twist your ankle walking over it later. Let's say that you are afraid your muse will wander off while you get to organizing. I mean, it's not impossible, but there's nothing about an organizing process that says you can still touch base with the creative. In fact, while organizing, you're probably going to see immediate ways to fill in some boring spots or cut them in favor of something better. You may want to stop organizing to throw together that scene or prefer to stick to organizing and just jot whatever notes will remind you to tackle it later.

UnNamed was completely drafted in less than two months. UnNamed also didn't break 90K words. UnSung, as it is right now, is between 150K-160K. I know it seems the opposite of what you hear from most writers, but I feel like drafting might bump that up. While some scenes might get deleted if they don't have enough weight, it is more likely there are some scenes where I just got the gist down so I could play it up later. In truth, UnSung is going to be closer to two or three books in comparison, but I also couldn't break it up like that and keep the series format intact. Each book follows a particular set of characters in a certain part of the world and all of these keep to the characters here. 

Why is this one so big? Well, it was the side plots leading into the main plot. Each Part does close up a major plot like a regular novel but it doesn't resolve enough with the larger mysteries behind it. I've mentioned before that there are interweaving scenes, something I find I do consistently in fantasy. Sometimes even the transition to completely different characters is interwoven with the theme of the scene before. This is why the draft phase wasn't one I could brush off as something to come back to later. I believe I did a post concerning exactly how I outline the interweaving plots and scenes (To Plot or Not to Plot... Maybe Just to Plod) but this also helps you see which plot lines might be too far apart, either risking being forgotten or a constant annoyance to the reader that favors that plot and finds the rest distracting until it comes up again.

I know that it also delves into which format you use. I'll never end up doing a post dedicated to 'chapter requirements' for many reasons. The one well-researched page going into topics such as what size chapters should be or how they should be labelled, according to which book sell best-- yeah, it was still far from enlightening. Even though the actual numbers were all over the map and in no particular genre, there was absolutely no 'perfect length' or amount of chapters. The general consensus is still 'the chapter or scene ends when it finishes its story.' I am personally someone who rarely has the time or patience to marathon a book so I rather like the simple courtesy of just double spacing between new scenes, a good enough stopping point for me if I need it. And scene length? While most hang around the 2-3K range in my current MS, there are some as low as 400 words, some nearing 6K (a pivotal series of scenes that actually have a couple paragraph breaks-- I broke my usual scene format to block this together). I will not ever be looking to beef up the short scenes or reduce the longer ones just to unify length. The idea that a book would become confusing when someone notices one chapter is 1K words shorter than the last is absurd.

First draft completion, though; it's a pretty critical stage for any number of reasons. For the people who do love flying through the first draft without looking back, they wonder what nightmare awaits their more critical eye when they return to it. You know your mood or energy or drive may not be anywhere near as euphoric or focused as it had been when you were stumbling through it, exploring it anew. You've already been here-- but remember, you probably missed a path or two that reveals itself on the begrudging edit that will give you more places to explore after all. For new writers especially, you might have always only been the sort to read a book once, but realize that's probably (absolutely) not the way you want to set it free into the world. I try to say that I do at least three drafts and two edits, even though it's more like five draft-edit freak shows. Rather than a lack of discipline or patience, I don't leave things to chance that I'll remember to fix it later. That's okay too, but if you find yourself freezing up at certain stages then maybe...

Maybe you need to stop looking at them as places to begin and end. Even within in a story, sometimes we feel like it's okay to stop when capping a scene. Done, finished, feels good. Then when we come back, sometimes we give ourselves the dreaded 'beginning' to start from. Another thing I've brought up repeatedly, but at the end of a draft, I immediately jump into editing, even if it's just a few hundred words or a single scene. I don't want the burden of starting a new process when I'm not warmed up to it yet. Maybe you CAN get that to work to your advantage though. Whenever I've stuck myself there, I wander over to my blog and muse a bit, maybe poke at a drawing project. The fact of the matter is, the days when I am up to starting something new are very few. When I find that motivation, I'll almost always hit my new ideas list and get a bunch of things going that I've been hedging on. Sometimes those build up and I'll delegate that time to finishing things. I did go through a phase where starting new things was about all I did. Never finished anything. I was really wasting my potential and it felt cowardly, to always say I had nothing to show because I couldn't let anyone see until it was finished. People rightfully began to doubt if I was doing anything at all. Now that I've become a finisher, it blows people's minds just all I had going on over the years.

We're going to hit points in drafting where structure or creativity just seems too far off balance, that you've been fixating on always being confident or not confident enough or your processes just aren't working for you. Some people have to really alter themselves. Might've been Hemingway (I always get lazier towards the end of a blog) that said that 'write drunk, edit sober' deal. There is actually nothing less useful than writing under the influence of anything for me. I am not one of the ones that becomes brilliant when fucked up. However, it still carries the same overall practice of tackling tasks in both ideal states and less than ideal ones. Each step should involve looking at your work when you love it and hate it and to be largely suspicious of your work if you're not feeling both. If you can't, then you are ineffective to your work and need to find readers that can be the voice you're not finding within. 

Can't tell you how many times people will say how humbled they are by great comments on their work then I'll go to read it and be appalled by how inaccurate their hug-box is. However, you'll also notice that constructive writers will avoid a needy writer that they know can't handle the truth. I, for one, often skip commenting when the writer is young enough to still be surrounded by those Stepford Wives friends that kind of cluster around like super fans and, ironically, troll all the 'mean people.' I know they're all going to hit some hard times ahead and, honestly, I'm not out to be the first. Why risk misdirection in my writing career by somehow becoming the target of some viral hate group of 20 year olds? When Jehovah's Witnesses come to my house with their kids, I'm also just not the type to enjoy introducing my atheism to indoctrinated 8 year olds. I came to my beliefs on my own and that was plenty hard enough. The thing is, people will be open to change or they won't and your talents or passions will pay the price of however long it takes to get there.

I like to help people but no one likes unsolicited advice and you do start to spot the humble brags and compliment fishermen and pay them no mind. Even your breaks from drafting or editing can be resourceful times where you seek out sincerity and challenge, something to encourage you to breech a starting point. Give everything a go, note what seems to work under what conditions. It's not going to be a list of tips that becomes more valuable to you but developing your own combinations through practice. Sometimes even I keep poring through blogs to see if there might be some new approach or some twist on an old one, but the reasons they work and the minute details tend to be unique.

Guess I better get my own things going. There's some anxiety in taming this monster, but excitement is a lot like anxiety and they're fighting on the edges of what must be done. First draft finished, PHEW! Still have to edit this monster so I can close up their story in Part 3 and introduce the new characters for Book 3 in the Epilogue. I've decided I like throwing a lead-in at the end of each book. It's like rolling out the red carpet.

Keep your own works going! Cherish your writing streaks, forgive your dry spells, every little bit gets you there. I know my first series is rolling out at lightning speed, but I spent maybe 15 years crawling through those books-- unsatisfying retail jobs, the turbulence of my personal life, health issues. I never imagined I'd get a single book done and then it just grew and grew, bit by bit. I avoided certain paralyzing mentalities-- comparing my work to bestsellers, mainstream opinion, marketing, literary elitism, that patronizing look people give you when you say you're writing a book. I'll grow and so will my stories. I enjoy fantasy for now but not all of my stories fit it so neatly and that's okay. I can write sappy romance and crime thrillers because they're my stories to tell. You don't have to tie yourself to how fast other people are writing, word counts, genre darlings (no, you don't have to be JRRT or GRRM-- you can have three initials, spell out your whole name and have zero elves or dragons in your fantasy). Don't damn your story to failure. Pioneers don't take the beaten path so mind your own steps and get there your way.

And as I've been saying since the 90s...

Love, peace, and chicken grease!