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I am writing a novel and am about a third of the way through my first draft. I am not one of those organized writers that can create a detailed outline first and then write. I have a very rough outline and I know that I'm going from point A to point B to point C but I just am not sure what happens along the way. If that makes any sense.
I have been writing event to event, just getting the crux of the story down. I plan on continuing that until I have the whole story written. But there are a lot of cultural aspects that I want to bring out as well.
I'm wondering if I should be working on writing in those cultural aspects now or whether it is alright to add those in during the second draft?
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Just put everything in your mind on paper, then go back and sort it. If that means working in those cultural aspects now, then so be it.
Posts: 7 | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
There are times as I'm developing a story, that my mind starts to go off on a tangent. I can come up with some great character background, learn more about the milieu, or understand more about the culture.
When this happens I try to go with it, but in a seperate document or on a pad of paper. At least I have it down. I can then refer to it as a resource as I'm writing OR revising. Sometimes it's enough to have straight in my head, and it just weaves its way into the story, other times I can drop whole chunks in.
There is no right or wrong way to do it. Just do what feels natural and resist the urge to panic.
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Having just finished a first novel I would say that what worked for me was to write an abbreviated draft first, subject to expansion during consecutive rewrites. IMHO outlines should be just that, a page at most, with the bare bones of 'Joe shot John and John is dead'. Think of an outline as purely a mnemonic device, subject to revision.
My first drafts are usually unreadable, making Faulknerian prose look simple. So in rewrites I trim down sentences, add detail and explanation. I try to double or triple the word count of each chapter in the process of improving readability.
Another problem is sorting. One can't know the best way a story flows until they do a couple of rewrites. Material which began on page one of the initial draft can end up in the third chaper of the completed version.
What is the point in using a word processor if you can't cut and paste? K
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One trick is to keep several folders. One main folder for main story as you get it together and then seperate folders for all your tangents, histories, characters and subplots. Even if they don't get into the book somehow their flavor enters your main writing and creates an authority to your writing.
I am a scene writer, I see things that happen and flesh them out. In the process of writing I may have dozens of scenes that will never get into the book but they all help me develope my story.
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I've determined that the novel I'm writing is just the first run to figure out what I'm writing. I've determined that once I'm done it will have to be written again. That's just me though.
Posts: 807 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I'm finding that for me I have to put it all down when the thought happens so I don't loose it, even if I decide later not to use the material. When the flow is happening go with it and sort it out later. Sometimes when I think of other things but I'm not ready to put into the chapter/section, I store it in another file and work on it seperately. Just some of the things I do.
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I wrote my first draft exactly the way you did, TSJR. The trouble is, now that I'm trying to tackle the rewrite, I'm finding I need a new method to go with it. Haven't come up with it yet. <shrug>
Posts: 1672 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I appreciate all the wonderful comments. I actually have a notecard outline and yes, it's very sketchy. I also already file everything in separate folders. I have folders for Scenes, People, Places, and Rules and then bunches of subfolders within those.
The scenes I've written so far are fully written scenes, not shorthand, but when I read through the draft as a whole it is missing the setting and culture aspects that add depth to a Fantasy realm. I am so intent on just getting the story events down that I cannot think on the "filler" at the same time.
I just wanted to make sure that was ok to do - to put that stuff off until later. I will add the details that give it dimension during the second or third draft. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has to write to figure out what's going to happen.
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Every piece of text I write, I try to make it as good as possible -- including everything it should have. But I do skip around. This is limited some by the way earlier scenes affect later ones.
Posts: 2830 | Registered: Dec 2004
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