I recently figured out a new writing process which so far seems to really work for me, and which I haven’t seen recommended elsewhere, so putting it here in case it helps someone else. Short version is that I write my first and second drafts simultaneously.
Long version: I’m a pantser and while I have a general outline of major events in my head, including the ending I’m aiming for, I mostly make it up as I go. So, for example, I have a scene level goal like “main characters should notice there’s a vampire in the nearby town, also can I get some movement on the romance subplot in here?” and then have to figure out what to do about that. And apparently in order to make that up my brain wants to go into lots of detail about exactly who is where doing what, and what conversation they have on the way to town, and if there are any secondary characters around. Otherwise I don’t know ‘what happened’. So my first draft runs long and has terrible pacing and very spotty characterisation because I’m still part way through making up secondary characters.
The new trick is to write a few thousand words of the first draft, and then stop and do the second draft of the same section. And then I can look at the blank page and ask ‘does this conversation actually need to be in here?” And my brain is happy saying ‘no’, because now I feel like I know what happened, and it’s just a question of deciding what parts of that to show on the page. So the second draft looks a lot better and has non-terrible pacing and doesn’t info-dump all the cool stuff I just thought of.
And repeat, a few thousand words at a time. It’s very motivating, because I get the fun of making new stuff up, but also I can look at the second draft and think ‘this is actually good’ so it feels like real progress instead of just writing lots of crap.
The WIP is an urban fantasy with a linear structure, and I’m writing it linearly (ie start at the beginning, write chapter 2 after chapter 1 etc). I’m not at all sure how or if this technique would work for someone who likes to write scenes from the middle and then skip back and do the beginning, etc.
Also, I’m still in the 1st/2nd draft, so no idea how this technique will work out when it comes to doing revisions or whether there will be unanticipated issues with that.
I’ve recently discovered how differently different writers think. A relative of mine has been getting into writing, and discovering that she doesn’t understand some of the concepts (plot, characterization) as intuitively as I do, and in the process of trying to help her figure it out, I’m learning how differently our brains really work (i.e. it took 45 minutes for us to clear up one term because, while we were both talking about the same thing, we were going about it in vastly different ways).
Now that we’ve had several conversations and she’s read a bunch of writing books, we don’t have that problem quite so much, but talking with her about writing still bends my brain out of shape. I think that when she actually starts putting her ideas down on paper, she’ll be a considerably more analytic writer than I am, just because she needs to think to put all the pieces of the story in.
Still, brain-bending or not, it’s been a fascinating case study… 😉
I think it’s amazing how differently different people think, whether about writing or anyone else. For example, the stuff about how some people don’t have a visual imagination (google aphantasia), or have completely different emotional makeup (think strong introverts vs strong extroverts for one example). One day I’ll stretch myself by trying to write a major character with a very different neurotype from me – but not today 🙂
I’ve launched into the revision of the WIP completed first draft. As I feared, it’s turned out not to just be a polishing pass; I still need to do some more timeline surgery. Even without that, I’m finding more artifacts of the old original timeline (from before the grim Long March revision of the half-finished draft) than I had expected.
I hope this won’t be another year-long revision project.
I’ve lately been working up the gumption to tackle my long-becalmed WIP. I firmly decide I’m finally gonna plow through my procrastination and make some progress on the damned thing…
Then I open up the file, realize what an immense load of fiddly work there is to do, and feel my brain shrivel away, and I go off and find some unproductive distraction.
This is, incidentally, the WIP that caused me to lose faith in my writing process and dropped a writer’s block the size of Texas on my output. (I looked ahead to see where the story was headed and did not like it one bit, but saw no alternatives.)
You beat me to it. The one time something similar happened to me, I set the novel aside, wrote a completely different novel (different setting and characters) and then returned to the first novel.
My first attempt at a novel is still sitting in my back files. So’s my second. And third. And some abortive short stuff. And…
I have fourteen novels out now, which just goes to show that *sometimes,* for *some* authors, putting aside what isn’t working and doing something else *can* be the way to go.
I recently figured out a new writing process which so far seems to really work for me, and which I haven’t seen recommended elsewhere, so putting it here in case it helps someone else. Short version is that I write my first and second drafts simultaneously.
Long version: I’m a pantser and while I have a general outline of major events in my head, including the ending I’m aiming for, I mostly make it up as I go. So, for example, I have a scene level goal like “main characters should notice there’s a vampire in the nearby town, also can I get some movement on the romance subplot in here?” and then have to figure out what to do about that. And apparently in order to make that up my brain wants to go into lots of detail about exactly who is where doing what, and what conversation they have on the way to town, and if there are any secondary characters around. Otherwise I don’t know ‘what happened’. So my first draft runs long and has terrible pacing and very spotty characterisation because I’m still part way through making up secondary characters.
The new trick is to write a few thousand words of the first draft, and then stop and do the second draft of the same section. And then I can look at the blank page and ask ‘does this conversation actually need to be in here?” And my brain is happy saying ‘no’, because now I feel like I know what happened, and it’s just a question of deciding what parts of that to show on the page. So the second draft looks a lot better and has non-terrible pacing and doesn’t info-dump all the cool stuff I just thought of.
And repeat, a few thousand words at a time. It’s very motivating, because I get the fun of making new stuff up, but also I can look at the second draft and think ‘this is actually good’ so it feels like real progress instead of just writing lots of crap.
The WIP is an urban fantasy with a linear structure, and I’m writing it linearly (ie start at the beginning, write chapter 2 after chapter 1 etc). I’m not at all sure how or if this technique would work for someone who likes to write scenes from the middle and then skip back and do the beginning, etc.
Also, I’m still in the 1st/2nd draft, so no idea how this technique will work out when it comes to doing revisions or whether there will be unanticipated issues with that.
That’s really cool! I’m glad it works for you!
I’ve recently discovered how differently different writers think. A relative of mine has been getting into writing, and discovering that she doesn’t understand some of the concepts (plot, characterization) as intuitively as I do, and in the process of trying to help her figure it out, I’m learning how differently our brains really work (i.e. it took 45 minutes for us to clear up one term because, while we were both talking about the same thing, we were going about it in vastly different ways).
Now that we’ve had several conversations and she’s read a bunch of writing books, we don’t have that problem quite so much, but talking with her about writing still bends my brain out of shape. I think that when she actually starts putting her ideas down on paper, she’ll be a considerably more analytic writer than I am, just because she needs to think to put all the pieces of the story in.
Still, brain-bending or not, it’s been a fascinating case study… 😉
I think it’s amazing how differently different people think, whether about writing or anyone else. For example, the stuff about how some people don’t have a visual imagination (google aphantasia), or have completely different emotional makeup (think strong introverts vs strong extroverts for one example). One day I’ll stretch myself by trying to write a major character with a very different neurotype from me – but not today 🙂
I’ve launched into the revision of the WIP completed first draft. As I feared, it’s turned out not to just be a polishing pass; I still need to do some more timeline surgery. Even without that, I’m finding more artifacts of the old original timeline (from before the grim Long March revision of the half-finished draft) than I had expected.
I hope this won’t be another year-long revision project.
I’ve lately been working up the gumption to tackle my long-becalmed WIP. I firmly decide I’m finally gonna plow through my procrastination and make some progress on the damned thing…
Then I open up the file, realize what an immense load of fiddly work there is to do, and feel my brain shrivel away, and I go off and find some unproductive distraction.
This is, incidentally, the WIP that caused me to lose faith in my writing process and dropped a writer’s block the size of Texas on my output. (I looked ahead to see where the story was headed and did not like it one bit, but saw no alternatives.)
Maybe let that story go and do a different one?
You beat me to it. The one time something similar happened to me, I set the novel aside, wrote a completely different novel (different setting and characters) and then returned to the first novel.
Agreed with both of you.
My first attempt at a novel is still sitting in my back files. So’s my second. And third. And some abortive short stuff. And…
I have fourteen novels out now, which just goes to show that *sometimes,* for *some* authors, putting aside what isn’t working and doing something else *can* be the way to go.
But there does come a point at which you need to ensure you finish stuff.
A good rule for this is when you have a pile of half-finished stuff, sit down and re-read it all one afternoon.
True, but certainly not everything that’s started needs to be finished. Most of what I set aside years ago should stay that way.
Wrestling with a large novel that, for once, is in a universe with more than one story in it. The other stories are persnickety about world-building.