- confidence in that most of the story won't change
- inability to pin down character motivations in the first draft
- trouble with plot structure and pacing
Additionally, most of my writing comes from me obsessively thinking about my idea, and then picturing snapshots or snippets of scenes in my head. And so here's my idea to draft my new project in Camp NaNo:
Sparse draft: a draft composed mainly of dialogue and character interactions, with minimal description or words in general. Often includes excessive square brackets indicating changes to be made.
What sparse drafting allowed me to do:
This draft is only about 40K compared to a projected 90K of the final draft. Basically I spilled ink all over the virtual page. So basically, the first upside is that I'm free-wrote really really quickly. If I know a scene needs to exist but it's not in my head, I leave a note in square brackets and move on. If I can't figure out the chinks in this scene, I leave a note in square brackets and move on. If I don't know what I'm doing, I leave a note ... yeah, you get the idea.
It'll also get rid of all the fluff and pretty metaphors that I'm rather fond of. I'm not saying I'll leave them out if they come to mind, but I'll do my utmost not to dwell on style at all. Sentence fragments, square brackets, even script-type dialogue — it doesn't matter. My job isn't even to get the words down, it's just to get the ideas down.
And the ideas that I have to get down? I made this list for myself:
It'll also get rid of all the fluff and pretty metaphors that I'm rather fond of. I'm not saying I'll leave them out if they come to mind, but I'll do my utmost not to dwell on style at all. Sentence fragments, square brackets, even script-type dialogue — it doesn't matter. My job isn't even to get the words down, it's just to get the ideas down.
And the ideas that I have to get down? I made this list for myself:
- plot events and general structure
- dialogue
- character goals and motivations
- genre elements
What sparse drafting will stop me from doing:
All the things that I won't be focusing on:
- character thoughts and characterisation thereof
- writing style
- worldbuilding
- any sort of literary stuff
These are mainly things I've judged unimportant until I have the approximate novel down — I might not reintroduce them until I finish the second draft. A sparse draft stopped me missing the forest for the trees, and we can hammer it out from the panorama to the pixel.
 |
| My progress at myWriteClub. Find me at alyssacarlier! |
The actual project I worked on:
 |
| Background by Jon Vlasach (x) |
- Thomas, the bastard son of a now-dead rebel leader, returned to take revenge on his father's nemesis after eight years in exile;
- Kim, the right-hand woman of said nemesis, sworn to enforce law and order in the country but with a soft spot for revolutionaries;
- Alisaria, a scholar of an institution that's just invented gunpowder, tasked by said institution to return to her home country and depose the somewhat autocratic ruler;
- and what's really frightening is that it's smack in the middle of a "dead" genre: YA dystopian.
You could see me plan in my #WatchMeWrite, and stay tuned for up-close looks at excerpts this Saturday and in July's #WatchMeWrite. And stay updated on my process by reading monthly letters from me to you!
Thoughts on my process? On my novel idea? The comments are yours!
Share my Camp NaNo love on Twitter: