For me there have been several pivotal moments in writing Overshadowed (my book). A few of those were what I consider life-changing (and I'll tell you those when I go over milestones of writing), but the one that is sticking into my mind is what happened when I finished the first draft.
I was so happy because , first of all, I had "officially" finished a book, and secondly I just knew the New York Times Bestseller List was only weeks away.
As I started going over my masterpiece I started to notice things that seemed out-of-place, things like your instead of you're. This bugged me because I knew it wasn’t quality writing, I knew I could do better.
By the time I finished reading the first draft I had slashed roughly half the book, erased most of my characters, and made substantial plot changes. Not to mention the improvements in my punctuation, spelling and paragraph structure. From there my book became an entirely different novel, and a much better one because of it. Then I found myself thinking revision is fun, (someday I'll talk about the traps of over-revision and how I got caught in almost all of them) and instead of finishing my book, I found myself barely starting it. This was my introduction to the revision process.
"But I've written a book!" I would tell myself, "it's done." Nothing else should have been needed, that was my justification. In the end though, I just couldn't allow it to stay the way it was.
I have mentioned this story before because it is important. Honestly, next to my decision to actually start writing a book this was the most important one of them all. It was the time when writing went from a pipe-dream, to reality. The reality that writing is a long, difficult, and tedious process.
I am thankful that I decided to revise instead of believing the lie that my work was satisfactory, because if I hadn't I would definitely have quit by now. Probably more from embarrassment than anything, or possibly the understanding that my writing wouldn't be taken seriously by anyone.
It takes a big weight off of your shoulders to know that no matter what you do, your first draft is going to suck. I wish someone had told me that back when I first got started.
Now when I write my first draft I unapologetically throw every rule of penmanship to the wind in favor of capturing my story. Ironically my first drafts have never looked better. There is a time for grammatically correct writing, but never at the expense of your story.
Honestly if I had started writing Overshadowed today, with the knowledge about writing I have now, it would only have taken me roughly two years to get to this point. Not because I'm so much smarter now, but because I work so much smarter. Now I set goals and write towards them, before I just wrote. Now I understand how much work it can take to structure each scene properly. Before I would start writing with an idea in mind and forget it because it took me so long to write it down.
I know what you're thinking, that I am against creative writing and only use structured writing concepts. Well you’re wrong, but not entirely. I love creative writing but I have figured out how (at least with Overshadowed) to use creative writing in its proper structure.
I want to talk more about creative versus structure because it is a "hot" topic and both have their positives and negatives. They also both can greatly assist you in your writing processes. But for now...
Sorry for that random, off-topic, digression. Normally I would erase something like this, but I'll allow it to stay as part of this chapter because I don't feel like editing it out. Plus it helps with a tie-in for future chapters. If I gave myself a couple more drafts I would probably remove it, but I'm not going to, so enjoy.
In closing, don't over-estimate yourself when you write. Making mistakes and writing poorly is part of the process. You don't have to apologize to anyone, but be prepared for heavy revision. If something looks wrong to you, it probably is.
Oh yeah, and stay on topic.
Practical advice:
My thoughts have been drifting more and more to idea development concepts, mostly because this season of life is full of new writing ideas. I have been flooded with story ideas from every angle. The strategy I have been employing to capture all of them is pretty simple. If I have an idea that I like, and is good enough in my opinion to warrant some writing, then I immediately write it out in two different directions; Characters and plot.
This is the beginning stages of a structured writing concept. And believe me this is not some cutting edge method that I'm going to patent, or guarantee will lead to book sales if you use it. It's a tried and true concept that saves a ton of leg work. If I decide who my characters are going to be (to a certain extent), and what's going to happen to them, before I start writing, then I have a solid foundation upon which I can build a story.
I have also created a playground upon which, the creative part of my brain can run wild. If I know that I want to tell a story about a man named Simon, during which he will experience a drastic change in life brought about by an act of kindness, then suddenly I have something to run with.
Things like..
What act of kindness? What life changing events? Who does he meet along the way? Do I want this to be a piece that is driven by the progression of my protagonist, or by the events he gets caught up in? Or do I want him to get attacked by a pack of wild, machete wielding, dragons?
All are valid questions, ones that must be answered. And believe it or not, the last question is one of the most important. Why? Because being somebody who writes a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, I always have to ask myself if I want this story to take place on my world (earth, aka real-life), or do I want to construct a magical new world where dragons carry machetes?
In future chapters I'm going to write a short story, show you my process of creating a universe around the story, then wrap it all up in somewhere relatively close to 5000 words. Hopefully that will help clarify what I mean by the importance of these things, as well as give you a chance to read some of my work.
Until next time...
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