First Draft

Whew! Sorry for my prolonged absence. I had the flu. My dog peed on my homework. The traffic was jammed on the information superhighway, I was pursued by saber-tooth tigers etc.

But I promised you a rough-draft, so here I am.

The rough draft is your very first attempt to throw together a scene or section of your book. It doesn't have to be perfect or even pretty. It's your first, vague outline of what that scene or section will look like.

The rough draft differs from a free-write in that in the rough draft, you will spend more time thinking and making decisions about what you are writing. You will stop and start, re-examine your details, think about what it is you want to say.

As you write, you will be trying to figure out how you will pack in all the information you have written in your journal. There just may not be room. What is the most important information to keep? If you're falling short of 500 words, can you add more expanded details? Do you have an anecdote that would support your point, or make your character more real?

Now start writing this little bitty piece of your book.

Make it at least 500 words long but it's probably best not to go beyond 750 yet. 500-750 words usually adds up to 3 or 4 double-spaced pages. This should take you an hour more or less, but don't worry if it's a lot more-or-less. Maybe you were extra-inspired, or it was hard to get the words rolling. You will get better with practice.

You get started. I'll go empty my dishwasher and come back when you're done.
(about an hour later)

Okay, fed my chickens, refreshed my coffee. Are you done writing yet? Wonderful.

You're not done for the day, though. (actually, that's up to you: If you're completely exhausted, go ahead and save this next bit until tomorrow).

Your next step is to get feedback. Because Feedback is important and I want to say several things about getting the best feedback possible, I'm going to start a new post on:

Constructive Criticism