Write One Complete Draft at a Time: Benefits of Writing a Novel or Memoir from Beginning to End before Going Back and Starting Again
by: Martha Alderson
(originally posted by: Brian Klems at The Writer’s Dig)
7 Reasons to Write an Entire 1st Draft before Going Back to the Beginning
1) Rather than stop and start over again and again, when you allow yourself to write a rough first draft from beginning to end, you actually finish a draft all the way through.
2) Until you write the end—the climax—you do not have a clear grasp of what comes earlier.
3) You accomplish what you set out to do.
4) Once you have a skeleton in place, you are able to stand back and “see” her story in an entirely new light
5) Until you write the entire story, you do not know the end.
6) The less time you devote to making every word perfect in the first couple of drafts the less painful future cuts and revisions will be. Because you haven’t invested hundreds of hours going back to the beginning, you’ll be less reluctant to cut the customary thirty-five to one hundred pages that almost always get chopped from the beginning of the manuscript. The more of yourself you give to making every word perfect before moving to the next scene, the more emotionally attached you become to the words. Cutting your work is never easy, but the more you can endure the chaos of ugly prose, gaps, and missteps in the early drafts, the better.
7) One of the greatest benefits of writing a truly awful, lousy, no good first draft is that it can only get better from there.
Stay alert for the internal antagonist — the belief that going back and starting again is beneficial — that strives to prevent you from achieving an external goal (finishing your story). Push forward. The further you put yourself out there with your writing the more vulnerable you feel. It is risky to follow the energy of your story out of your comfort zone. Always, the choice to delve deeper into the Universal Story represents a leap of faith and a belief in the journey’s potential for growth.
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Take the PLOTWRIMO Pre-Challenge:
Begin 2014 ready for a powerful rewrite.
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The following resources support you in your pre-challenge:
1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of
The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
named BEST BOOKS FOR WRITERS by Poets&Writers. The author provides insight on how to create works of fiction with powerful stories and focuses on how to devise a Universal Plot, plot lines and subplots, compelling scenes, and character transformation.
3) Refer to The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing
for writing prompts for scene #1 to the very The End, one prompt at a time.
4) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube
5) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.
For more tips about how to use plot and the Universal Story in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:
Plot Whisperer on Pinterest
*****Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.
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