It's such a process! It took about 5 years for my first
real draft to finally come out, and that was after a lot of trial and error, a couple really awesome online writing courses (via UCLA's Writer Extension -- Great program! No degree necessary, kinda costly, tho) and a dedicated writing group driving me forward week by week. My "first" draft was a 20,000 word "short story" that probably took 8 months to come out, and when it was done I couldn't be sure what was wrong with it, just that it wasn't, well... right. It was probably a year before I started my first UCLA class. From the short story I took the two main characters, and the overall concept, but that was it. I started all over.
From there, I wrote in fits and starts, rewriting the first chapter three or four times before it felt right. I distinctly remember the visual when it came to me, that fourth time. My protagonist was staring up through a domed glass ceiling. It was raining. And there were bright red auxiliary lights on overhead. Weird, right? I've since ditched basically all of that, along with the 32k draft that that initial "new" chapter one spawned (That draft was only a third of the way done, too). That was pretty rough... hitting that wall, and going maybe 6 months not working on my novel at all (I tried writing a short story instead, another class... with only partial success).
From there I began to learn the true value of plan work. I fell in with an instructor who turned me onto this notion that there's something to be said about knowing how your book ends before writing a word. No, not the ultimate ending, not the four-drafts-in-super-polished ending. Just an ending. Any ending. She taught me to make choices, because you can always change them. There are no bad choices. Only choices you have to rethink, later on. The very worst thing you can do is sit on the fence, making no choices about your book's direction at all. Don't get me wrong, I still have that problem. But when I just decide to write something, even if everything in me screams that it's wrong or stupid or won't pan out, I always get somewhere. And that's ultimately the point. You're going to have good and bad days. But writing isn't about writing well. It's just about
writing. And I promise you, if you just keep writing, no matter how terrible it comes out some days, you'll have enough good ones that it'll all be good eventually.
My instructor taught me how important it is to divorce your ego from your work, as best you can. To "get out of your own way" and just let the writing flow out of you. But to be intentional about your scenes, as well. That there is a very formulaic way in which you can lay out a book (in 3 acts), and each scene has to be "balanced". No more than 30% backstory per scene. And make sure that your book has three major plot elements (meaning elements woven throughout the entire book, that are are only resolved by the end), and that those play out during your scenes. Make sure that there is always "in-the-moment" conflict, which my instructor likes to call "Present Action".
Don't get caught up on everyday details. Your protagonist getting dressed, taking a shower, making coffee. Nobody cares! You're telling us about the most interesting part of your character's life. Don't dally, don't take time to set things up. The first chapter (or "scene") shouldn't just be about establishing the "status-quo" (a.k.a. what normal, everyday life looks like), it should also be about interrupting it; setting up some kind of inciting incident that launches your story.
One of the best things I've learned to do is write loose "scene sketches". Anywhere from 5 sentences to a whole page describing what I wanted to happen in the scene, keeping all of my larger storytelling goals in mind. It takes a lot of the pressure off when you're not trying to write prose
and feel out the contents of your plot. I've learned to focus on one or the other. I was forced to loosely plot out my entire book via these sketches in one of my classes. I ended up ditching a lot of it, but the exercise was still invaluable, because I was able to use this tool again and again.
I rewrote my first chapter two more times before I finally got it right (and by that I mean, right for the 1st draft), and then when I finally wrote a brand new first draft in it's entirety (this was just last year) I had enough of a sense of the book's ending to write toward it, and I'd either do a scene sketch first and then write a 2-5k chunk, or I'd just pants it. Participating in NaNoWriMo helped a ton (National Novel Writing Month); those 50,000 words were the bulk of my 90k draft, which took 2 and a half months. But I'd also left my job to write full time. That sure helped.
It's taken me nearly 7 months to get to where I am now with the 2nd draft, and I'm not even done yet, although I'm 3/4ths of the way there. I rewrote a third of it in February on a mad spree, only to ditch basically all of it when I realized that what I really needed to do was sit back and plan a bit more, instead of trying to write prose. So that's what I did, doing my best to write concise "scene sketches" (starting over on what became 2nd draft 2.0) which have now morphed into what are essentially full chapters (at 3k-4k words each), but they're not "prose". They're very fluid... summary of action with real dialogue sprinkled in.
My instructor kept trying to get me to write 3-5 sentence scene plans, but that just didn't work for me. I hated having to be so concise, and found myself exerting a lot of energy, trying to shorten my scene plans. So instead, I acknowledged what worked best for me -- long, loose scene plans, and rolled with it. This draft is something of an "in between" draft. The next one will be prose, and since most of the planning is already done, it might actually be fun. I'm looking forward to it!
And that's been the last 5 years. The biggest, hardest thing you have to learn is how exactly
you write a book. For me, I'm not just writing. I'm
building. And that takes careful thought and precision, beyond just churning out thousands of words. But no one could teach me that. I just had to do enough writing to know that that's what worked for me.
Where there's a will, there's most certainly a way. Asking for help is a good start. I'd advise looking into some writing courses. And if you're tight on time or funds, refer back to the works of fiction that inspired you to write whatever you're writing in the first place. I'm writing Young Adult Dystopian, personally, and I often open up 'The Hunger Games' and read a chapter, and think to myself: "Okay, how much did she accomplish in this chapter, storytelling wise?". Then I get back into my book and try to make sure I've accomplished just as much. It can really help to have a concrete template to refer back to.
Aaanyways, I'm rambling. That's the most I'll apologize for my lengthy posts, though. I'm a novel writer for a reason
.
Best of luck to you.
-- Emma
