You finish your rough draft. Now what? How do you write an effective second draft of your story rather than just edit what you’ve already written or simply move words around?
I have a few tips.
1) Fill out a Scene Tracker for your project. Scenes that fulfill all seven essential elements of plot — date and setting, character emotional development, is driven by a specific character goal, shows dramatic action, is filled with conflict, tension, suspense or curiosity, shows emotional change within the scene, and carries some thematic significance — keep. Any scenes that do not fulfill each of these elements may not carry enough weight to belong in your story.
Evaluate your Scene Tracker for your strengths and weaknesses. If you find your Scene Tracker has lots of Dramatic Action filled with conflict, tension, and suspense, but little Character Emotional Development, in your rewrite, concentrate on your weakness.
For those scenes that do not fulfill each of the seven essential elements, see if you can integrate more of them in your rewrite or consider lumping together two or more weak scenes in order to make one powerful scene.
2) Create a new Plot Planner for your story. Locate the three most important scenes — the End of the Beginning, the Crisis, the Climax. Evaluate how many scenes fall above and below the line. Consider how the energy rises and falls. The visual representation of your project should give you clues as to where to concentrate during the rewrite.
3) Write a brief outline of your story by chapter — simply one or two sentences per chapter that will gives a feel for pacing, plot, and flow. The process of writing the outline should start to reveal holes and weaknesses throughout.
4) Write a one-page synopsis of your story.
Of course, you can always sign-up for a Plot Consultation. I’ll let you know where to concentrate the next time around.
How do you go about preparing for a rewrite? What is your favorite method for “seeing” the whole of your story in order to evaluate what’s needed for the rewrite???
These are all great tips I can’t add too much except make sure you develop your characters in depth so you can keep up with how they will effect your plot. Relate to them as much as you can so you can definitely think about what you would do in the circumstance you are setting up and apply that to your story
Considering the type of person I am it’s surprising that I’m really not a very technique-y writer. I never plan out a story or even a novel. All my pieces are character-centric but even then, I don’t always have a full picture of who the protagonist is when I start. My premise is always the same: put a character in a situation and let things develop naturally. I never do what I think of as drafts, i.e. finding a fresh piece of paper and starting again, with one exception, my current novel, which I scrapped after 10,000 words, but I don’t think of what I’m working on now as a draft; it’s a different book.
My approach to all my prose writing is to get a ‘thin’ story completed, get my character from A to wherever B ends up being as quickly as possible and then I start grafting on the details. If the ‘thin’ story doesn’t work then it doesn’t matter how much padding I pack around it the thing will never work and I move onto something else. One other thing, I’m not big on is plot and many of my stories don’t have one. And when you strip down my novels there also next to no plot and absolutely no subplots. I’m not that kind of writer.
EXCELLENT second draft advice and that’s exactly where I am. 😀 I’ve just begun edits with my cp. Thanks for the step reminders. I tend to hang back on the synopsis and it’s much easier to tackle it sooner than later. I wish *synopsis* had a different name. That one scares me. 😀 What would you call it instead, to alleviate palpitations?
Hugs, JJ
Thanks da vinci for your comments — especially helpful to those writers who completely zone out about character in their zeal to create lots of zip and zinging dramatic action and thus end up with a lopsided story — at least in their first draft. Second draft, slow down and keep to the character…..
I typically recommend that the writer not think about what they would do in the circumstance they are setting up, but to imagine themselves as the character and then what they, as that character, would do in the circumstance. Subtle difference, but important, I believe.
Thanks again!
I think all your tips hit the big thing–2nd draft is really the time to plot, whether or not you’ve done it for the first. I typically start reading pages, thinking I’m going to get the whole way through, and then I drop that because the plot issues start showing up, and I end up concentrating on that instead. I think the second draft is the time to start those really big changes and not worry yet about the little ones.
Hi Martha,
I’m not at the point of my second draft yet (although very soon) and have to say that is why I’ve focused on using a very streamlined version of your scene tracker for preplotting just to keep me focused.
For my second draft writing, I will be using your plot planner for pacing issues as well as a more fully vamped scene tracker to make sure that I have hit the major points per scene.
I have to say though, that I usually start off my writing by asking myself about 10 key questions about my story idea/situation and then shoot for a premise/theme from that. This way I know I have a credible story.
Thanks for the 2nd Draft tips. If it’s ok with you Martha, I’d like to ask the group, what other resources they use in helping them with their second draft (other than your Blockbuster Plots book, of course)??
I’m feeling that when I get to the 2nd draft, I’m going to feel overwhelmed with the so many checks and balances that might need to be addressed.
I guess this is my left-side of my brain asking for some kind of orderly help!!!
Thanks!
Excellent advice. The revising is when the real work of crafting the story needs to get done. I’m glad you like my revision techniques, the Ten-Point Strategy for Revision. Your readers can find it at My Writing Life, http://www.learnedaboutwriting.blogspot.com
Best,
Todd
Jim, I like that — “a thin” draft or story…….
JJ — I think writing a synopsis is much harder than writing the entire book.
That’s partially true because for a synopsis you have to distill the story to its essence.
In the first draft of your novel, things are likely to ramble to a certain degree.
The meaning is probably a bit hazy the first time through.
Without a firm idea of the underlying thread it’s tough to write a synopsis, but the attempt itself can often give you a sense of what to concentrate on in the second draft.
Martha–
Very insightful advice, especially for those of us who don’t know where to even start the revision process.
I’m still on my first draft, following the directions you gave in an earlier post. No going back. No rereading. Tough for me.
Tougher still to read your latest post. ugh. Still so much to do and so much more awaits me.
Livy, I can vouch for FICTION FIRST AID by Raymond Obstfeld. Come on people, help her out. Hope that helps.
Thanks Anonymous for the nudge….
I’m such a visual person that I find creating a Plot Planner (NOTE: technique found on blockbusterplots.com) of the story on a blackboard I painted on the wall in my office (NOTE: technique found on MarthaStewart.com) and plotting scenes out fits for me.
I know lots of you writers out there have finished the first draft of a project. Any help for Livvy about how you went about writing the next one???
Nature Nut/JJ Loch, sometimes it can help to think of a synopsis simply as a jacket blurb, but written for yourself, without worrying about giving the plot away. That also helps you visualize the final work as a book.