Pumping iron on the first draft
You spend years pouring out your heart and soul and the first piece of advice that many new writers hear is: “Don’t worry, your first draft always sucks.” I totally disagree. The mere fact that you have completed the first draft should let you know that you are a winner. I have heard that 80% of the people who live in the United States want to write a book. That means 260 million people who want the same thing as you. But how many people do it? Not many. How many people start your book but never finish it? Too many. So if you have a draft, take a moment and celebrate … you’ve done something millions of people have never done.
A first draft is exactly what it sounds like, the FIRST step, not the last. If you’re 200 pounds overweight, you don’t expect to hit a gym and come out healthy the next day. Congratulations, you’ve entered the front door. Now what? Here are five basic steps to help you fine-tune and shape that novel.
Step 1 – Cut the fat. The goal of a rough draft is to get all of your ideas out, so you can make the best story possible. If I write 70,000 words in the first draft, I expect to lose 10,000 words in the editing process. Your results may vary, but the point to remember is never to use six words when three words are enough.
Step 2: watch your grammar. Very few people can write like Mark Twain or William Shakespeare. Maybe after you have two or three hundred stories under your belt, you can ignore the rules … but I doubt it. Yes, this means more work, but it’s not something you can skip just because it’s no longer fun. Check spelling, punctuation, run sentences, word timing, and then do it again.
Step 3: show, don’t tell. Why does everyone keep saying that the show doesn’t tell it? Maybe because we keep telling the story. You are not a reporter, you are not a storyteller … you are a creator of worlds. As Anton Chekhov once said:
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on the broken glass.”
But remember, don’t add fancy phrases and pretend you’re showing the reader something new.
Step 4 – Strong dialogue. Not all dialogs need to have a dialog tag. The moment you repeat “He said” or “She said” ten times on the page, the reader is bored. On the other hand, if you use too many different labels, you start to forget step 3 (show, don’t tell). My solution is simple, whenever possible DO NOT use a tag. Sure, if you have multiple characters, you don’t always have that option, but the fewer tags you use, the better. Give your character a personality so the reader never has to guess who said what.
Step 5: keep it simple. The first time I tried NaNoWriMo (write 50,000 words in 30 days) it failed miserably. He was overwhelmed, it was more than he could process. Many first-time writers do the same with their readers. They take on a role and, a few hours later, they have ten pages of Grandma going to the store. This applies to backstories, supporting characters, and overly elaborate descriptions. When in doubt, cut it off. If you don’t advance the story, you tear it down. You must decide which words are the most important.
If you’ve never been to a gym before, don’t start out by doing 200-pound leg squats and hopping on a treadmill for five miles a day. As with your writing, start at the beginning and work your way up. The steps above won’t make your work look like Mr. Universe overnight, but this is where it starts to make a difference. Repetition is key. You keep writing, editing and practicing. Do this, and one day … you no longer dream of writing that great American novel … you are finishing it.