The Darwinian Method

 

My writing method is a bit odd. I write a first draft, then take a break from that book while I work on something else (these days two other projects, one drafting, one editing).

I have my reasons. The mental break allows me to read the story as a whole novel and to come at revisions with a fresh eye. I can see and tackle large problems better once I have a bit of perspective. I then usually go straight from the second draft onto the third and keep working until the book is (mostly) done.

However, I don’t stick to a strict schedule. I’m not currently under deadline, so I work on what I want to work on. There are a number of first draft files languishing in my folders that I’ve simply never gotten back to. Some I still intend to finish, others I’ve given up. (The number of my first drafts currently sits at seven. Four I have intentions to revise, three I suspect I may give up on. Only one am I actually eager to fit into my schedule and revise.)

These unfinished novels used to make me wince and feel guilty, but lately I’ve decided to embrace it. This is just Darwin’s method of selecting the fittest and best. Some novel ideas just never quite pan out. Some first drafts aren’t worth the effort it would take to pull them up to par. If the idea of revising them makes me tired, I can just… let them go. That can be very freeing.

After all, if I ever do want to revisit an idea, the file is still there.

Because sometimes a writer has an idea that they don’t have the chops to pull off early in their career. Or sometimes a failed draft is just waiting for another spark to take fire. Waiting patiently for an epiphany.

I wrote the first draft of my YA novel Frost the summer after I graduated high school. The initial idea grabbed me and I started writing without much of an outline. The resulting draft was terrible, and I had no idea how to fix it. It languished in a file drawer for I think a decade before I revised it. I was pleased with it but my beta reader pointed out a significant problem that I didn’t know how to fix so I put it away again and worked on other books until a chance conversation made me realize I needed to change the setting and add another POV character. After that third draft the book was much better, and the fourth better yet—but I still couldn’t get it published. So it waited, patiently, for another few years, another epiphany. The changes I made for the fifth draft were relatively minor, taking only a week or two to complete, but oh, what a difference they made. The book sold, and then went on to win one award and be a finalist for a number of others.

Some seeds never sprout, some merely need time and care to mature and bear wonderful fruit.

 

 

Two Projects at Once

Yes, I'm trying this again, with the usual haphazard  results. In the past I've tried doing Tues-Sun on one project and Mondays on another. It worked well for awhile--and then it stopped working. At all.

Right now I'm drafting a new SFR book in the morning, and revising the fourth draft of a different novella in the afternoon. Theoretically.

How is this actually working? Well, on Monday and Thursday mornings, I do a Zoom write-in with two members of my writers' group. During that ninety minutes, I can usually do a daily quota of 1000-1500 words. Thus, freeing myself up to spend the afternoon on edits. Except half the time I end up doomscrolling on Twitter or doing puzzles. Sigh. Still, I usually get a few small edits done.

On other days, when I don't have the write-in, I don't always get in my daily quota and frequently end up drafting in the afternoon and not getting around to edits. 

This week, I had an epiphany on Monday evening about how to improve the novella. In an excess of enthusiasm, I put the drafting entirely aside for yesterday and today to work on the novella (though I intend to return to it for Thursday's meeting--tomorrow for me, today for those of you reading this blog). Yesterday I planned out how to implement the changes I want to make. Today I started tackling them and was going strong. At which point I remembered I had a blog due tomorrow...

So, yeah. Lots of ups and downs, but overall I would say the Zoom write-in are helping with my productivity and allowing me the brainpower to work on two projects at once. What I really need is more writing peeps to Zoom with on the other weekday mornings or afternoons. Anyone interested?

Beginnings

 My current work-in-progress is a novella called Unscripted based on a short story I wrote some twenty years ago called Without a Cue. 

It has a cute, somewhat quirky premise: everybody in this fictional world is delivered a script each day that they then have to follow. Only, of course, something goes wrong and the main character has to go off script to their great dismay.

I'm just starting the third draft, which is when I focus in on the nitty-gritty sentence level and analyze each scene. The beginning scene is the most important one in any story as it has to introduce the character and world as well as hooking the reader. I  thought it might be interesting to show a little bit of my process so here's an annotated excerpt from the first page.

EXCERPT

Chapter One

Something about the bus driver snagged Chris’s attention as he boarded the city bus on Monday morning. It took his sleep-deprived brain a moment to realize what the oddity was: she lacked the silver R on her forehead that should have marked her as a Robot. 

[ANALYSIS: The first sentence is okay, but doesn't have as strong a hook as I  would like, only raising the minor question of What snagged his attention? It does a basic job to informing the reader who the main character is, what he's doing and when he's doing it. The second sentence is better, first raising the question of Why is Chris sleep-deprived? and then alerting the reader than this is a science fictional world in which Robots are regularly bus drivers as well as raising the question of why this bus driver isn't a Robot.]

The beige City Transit uniform and peaked cap identified her as the driver, but her hair burned a garish red and the curls brushed her shoulders. Robots had utilitarian, short haircuts. They kept silent and focused on their job, their stares vacant. This woman made eye contact and spoke to him.

“Good morning!”

She sounded so cheerful that Chris smiled back at her, though, of course, he didn’t reply.

[ANALYSIS: The second paragraph is mostly added detail, drawing a picture for the reader and explaining how the bus driver is different from a robot driver. The next two  sentences advance the plot slightly. I'm hoping the "of course he didn't reply" raises the question of why he didn't reply in the reader's mind. This is the first subtle hint to my big world-building hook that everyone is following a script. Not sure if it's too subtle, though.]

She winked. “I like you. Sit up front beside me.”

Chris blinked a little at the unexpected request, but his mind was too fuzzy to recognize the warning sign that something was wrong. Assuming that the driver must be part of a new Storyline that was starting, he collapsed onto the nearest blue vinyl seat, kitty-corner from the driver. His artist’s eye saw her as cartoon bird perched on her high seat.

[ANALYSIS: Nothing much has happened yet, but we get another big hint that something is wrong and Chris's commute to work is about to take an unexpected turn. The capitalization of Storyline is another hook to make the reader wonder about the world. Then I feed the reader a little more information about Chris: he is an artist. There's a fair amount of  information packed into the first six paragraphs, but it doesn't exactly start with a bang. Conclusion: it needs more work.]

And there you have it, a glimpse into a writer's mind during revision!

  

Switching Gears

 I recently finished writing the first draft of a YA novel, a fairytale retelling with the working title of The Redemption of Prince Charming. Because my process is weird I always let my first drafts "rest" for awhile so that I can come back to them with a fresh eye. However, I don't like to do two first drafts in a row.

Okay, that's a lie. I'd love to write nothing but first drafts and chase all the shiny new ideas that come my way, but if I did I would never actually finish or publish anything so I don't allow myself to do two first drafts in a row. Which means picking a project to rewrite and switching gears into editing mode.

Some writers adore editing mode; I personally enjoy drafting mode more. Sure, I sometimes get stuck, but if I have a decent outline drafting mostly goes smoothly for me. Whereas editing mode is a lot more up and down. Sometimes I'm in the groove and can dig into polishing those sentences up. More often tedium sets in, especially in fourth or fifth drafts where I'm rereading the same scene for the umpteenth time and going over checklists. (Is there enough tension? Is there a scene hook and ending line? How's the dialogue? Does it show character arc? Did I forget to describe what the setting and any new characters look like? On and on.) 

Some days I feel like I'm just poking at the manuscript rather than making actual progress.Sigh.

I think its time to make myself a pretty bar graph to colour in, so that I can see that I am actually making progress, even if slowly.

Back to the  grind...

Tinkering with the Writing Process

 

 

Confession time: I love reading non-fiction books about writing. I am forever tinkering with my writing process, trying to make it smoother and faster and give me a better result. Compared to other professional writers, I write slowly. Four books a year? Hah. I am lucky to get one and a half.

I firmly believe that there is no one true way to write a book. Every writer has a different process. However, I also believe that one can improve one’s process by trying new techniques. You can make your own shortcuts through the hedge maze.

When I was a newbie writer, the process of rewriting was mysterious to me. In school, we made a first draft and a final draft of essays, but the difference lay mainly in improving sentence structure and correcting typos and grammar. My beloved “Guide to Fiction Writing” by Phyllis A. Whitney which taught me reams about characters and outlining and suspense devoted a mere six pages to the topic of revision. Not very helpful.

For many very painful years I went unpublished because I found rewriting tedious and thus would start submitting my work after a mere two drafts. It would, of course, be rejected. By then I would be head down deep in a new project and months would pass before I returned to the rejected manuscript, if I ever did. My early process was entirely haphazard, like throwing paint on a wall and then seeing what sticks. One (unpublished) book of mine was revised eight times and by the end was almost wholly unrecognizable from my original idea.

Slowly, painfully, I learned what worked for me (such as approaching each scene as a unit, with a dramatic question and answer) and what doesn’t. And a funny thing happened. I used to loathe the entire rewriting process from start to end. But now that I know how to make each scene better and can see the results? I actually kind of like it. Except for the tedious polishing bits…

So, I encourage you to play with your writing process and try new things. Some will work and vault your writing to new heights, some will founder. You never know until you try.