Writing is rewriting. This is something you may not understand as a beginning writer. I wrote for years without ever editing a word. I even turned off the red line in Word that indicated a word was misspelled, so I wouldn’t lose my train of thought. Nothing stopped me from getting the first draft on paper. This isn’t a bad thing, but you don’t get into the meat of writing until you start the second draft.
Writing instruments: pencil or pen and paper, typewriter, Word, Google Docs, Scrivener, and many more. I don’t know why anyone would use a typewriter when you could be entering all those words into a program like Word, but some people do. I used to write by hand until I had to rewrite every word, and my hand cramped so bad I could barely hold a pen. The sweet writing instruments are computer programs. Word is the standard for the writing industry. I prefer to stick with it for this reason. A lot of people like to use Google Docs because it’s free and they can type on their phone. Scrivener has a lot of fun tools that help you organize your files, and you can view more than one at a time. I see the appeal. There are many others, but I don’t hear their names in the writing community, so I’m not going to list them.
You can’t rewrite until you write. So, step one: are you going to plot your story or pants it? I started as a pantser and now I’m somewhere in between. Plotters plot out the story, generally using an outline. Pantsers write by the seat of their pants. Oftentimes, they have no idea where the story is going or what will happen next. I think you can get a better plot from plotting, but it’s easier to write a beautiful story when you pants. This is why I like to do a combination of both.
Now that you have your outline or general idea, begin writing. A lot of people write a lot of exposition at the beginning of a story. This is you telling yourself the background, and it is fine in your first draft, but it should be taken out at some point. I’ve heard that you should start the story as close to the end as possible, and I think this is truly great advice. The key is figuring out how close to the end you can begin and still tell the whole story. Write your messy first draft.
But wait! What about character sheets? A story is transformation, and often it’s the transformation of your protagonist. Not always, but often. Characters are defined by their actions, not their biography, but understanding the kind of character you’re dealing with helps by getting to know who your protagonist is at the beginning and who they are by the end. Those character traits should help or hurt your character along the way. Unique character traits are essential for the protagonist and the other characters. Too often, I read a book where each person is a clone of everyone else, to the point that I can’t tell them apart. I DNF those books. Your characters make the story, so make interesting characters.
You have your first draft; now, how do you edit it? There are several different types of edits. As far as I’m concerned, you can do a billion different kinds of edits. They say ignore proofreading until the end, but I have a hard time concentrating on the other issues with spelling and grammar issues taunting me. The order you edit is up to you. Developmental edits look for major issues of the story and plot: are there plot holes (I call this cohesive edit), how’s the pacing, is it engaging? Are the characters well-developed and believable? Will the reader care about them? How’s the overall structure and flow? I like to do a dialogue edit to make sure the dialogue matches the character. I tend to skip the scene and have to ground my characters, literally, where are they? You may have to do a fact-checking pass. Line editing focuses on your word choice, syntax, tone, and structure. The listening edit should never be skipped. Read your work aloud, or, better yet, have it read to you. Some books may require a sensitivity reader. Finish with proofreading and then proofread it again.
You think you’re done. Get a beta reader, or an alpha or ARC. An alpha reader will look at the first or an early draft. They expect something messy. The beta reader should receive your first “I think I’m done” draft. Hint: you are not done. ARC readers are receiving your “I’m on the verge of publishing” copy. This copy shouldn’t have any errors, but hopefully they’ll catch them if there are any. These are also the people who will hopefully provide your first reviews.
But my first draft is a hot mess, and I don’t know how to fix anything, or I’m just stuck and can’t even finish a first draft. Yeah. We’ve all been there. Let’s go over stories. To be continued…
