You did it! The hardest part of writing your book is done.
You’ve wrestled with yourself, the muse, and heaven and nature themselves to extract a story out of thin air – and it’s uniquely your own.
Your first draft is written – now it’s time to celebrate! This is part of the process. If you’re not celebrating your wins, then your joy in life instantly decreases.
And then, of course, back to work.
Children’s book author Darcy Pattinson once wrote, “The purpose of the first draft is to figure out what story you are telling. The purpose of all the other drafts is to figure out the most dramatic way to tell that story… So – I allow myself to, well, to figure it out. Slowly, painfully – the story is starting to shine through. It will be there within this draft, waiting for me to recognize it and polish it. I am just trusting the process and writing a really lousy first draft.”
Your first draft is lousy. That’s just a fact of the writing life. As you realize how bad your first draft is, you may be tempted to give it all up. Throw your hands up in the air, shut down your computer for good, and revert to a life void of creative endeavors as a whole. Surely it’s better to not impose your lousy first drafts on the world. Surely you’re a lost cause.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Every writer everywhere – those you’ve heard of and those you haven’t – have felt the exact way you’re feeling now. Do not despair. You are in the company of the great ones. What distinguishes writers from non-writers is simple: writers don’t stop writing. They are dogged in their pursuit of their story, and that doggedness does not stop after their first draft.
There are endless ways to approach a second draft, and you have to devise the methodology that will work best for you. In working with our clients, however, we’ve found seven key steps that we believe will help any writer as they prepare to delve back into their manuscript for the second time around.
The Bonnie Book Second-Draft Methodology
- Write a post-draft outline.
Chances are, somewhere along the way of writing your first draft, you created an outline. Your outline likely helped you write your story and gave you a general map to follow. Now, put your first outline away. It’s time to create a new outline of what actually happened in your story. Do this from memory – what do you remember just writing? What plot emerged as you wrote your first draft?
- Create a character map.
Follow the same process with your character map as you did with your post-draft outline. Without referencing your manuscript, make notes about your characters. Who are they? What are their relationships like with other characters? What sort of journey/growth did they have throughout your book?
- Write a synopsis of the themes of your story.
Now, create a third document about the themes of your story. These likely emerged as you wrote your first draft. While they may be clunky or disconnected, the seeds should be there. Again, without referencing your manuscript, write about what themes your story includes.
- Put your draft away for 2-3 weeks (at least).
The amount of time you need away from your manuscript depends on you. I had writing professors say that the golden amount of time was 2-3 weeks. Stephen King wrote in “On Writing” that his sweet spot is around 6 weeks, or until he has started another writing project. Regardless of how much time it is, take some time away.
- Come back to your draft after 2-3 weeks and check it against your outline, character map, and theme document.
Now, it’s time to read your book for the first time. Come back to your manuscript prepared with your post-draft outline, character map, and theme document. Cross reference these documents as you read through your draft. How close were you to what you thought you wrote? Take notes as you read on what needs to be added, deleted, or changed.
- Correct, add or delete anything that needs fixing.
Once you’ve finished your first read-through, make the changes you’ve taken notes on. Resist the urge to make changes until you’ve finished reading the entire manuscript. You can leave yourself notes, highlight passages, or make “suggested changes” in Google Docs, but don’t do anything permanent. Wait patiently until the entire story emerges, and then make your changes.
- Find beta readers and send your revised first-draft out with specific questions.
Now’s the time to bring in more sets of eyes, whether you have or haven’t already. Beta-readers can be fellow writers (from a writing group or classmates), friends, or colleagues with an eye for a good story. If you’re not sure where to start, there are several writing groups that are free and easy to join online.
Select a few trusted readers and send your manuscript to them, along with your post-draft outline, character map and theme document. The best way to utilize beta readers is to ask them specific questions about where you think your draft is lacking. Give them something to look for, and don’t shy away from their constructive criticism. You need all the feedback you can get. It can be difficult to receive negative comments, but the worst-case scenario is that you strongly disagree and disregard it. Best-case? You get feedback that will greatly improve your story and make it the best it can be. Either way, you’ll be just fine.
Once you’ve assessed your first draft with this methodology, you’ll be in a much better place to revise, rewrite, and update the manuscript as needed. It can feel like a painful process to change what you’ve written, but as any gardener knows, the best growth comes from trimming, pruning and cutting back. As a writer, you’re on your way to making your story the best it can be.
