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The Wilds of Writing a First Draft
How do you hack and slash your way to the end?
I am, once again, writing a first draft. I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.
This is despite having finished first drafts of two different books now. You would think that I have some kind of confidence in what I’m doing, but you’d be surprised. Each time feels like I’m starting all over again.
I am a strange hybrid of plotter and pantser. My stories usually start with the germ of a premise, and the vague shape of the character comes to me. Then I start free-writing, trying to find the characters’ voices and personalities, and an idea of what the plot is. It’s not unusual for me to write over 100,000 words when I’m first playing around with new characters and scenarios, trying to find their stories and their voices.
And I am back at the beginning again.
It’s strange: for as much as you learn from your previous books, each new one starts from nothing. Each new beginning is a big, wild wilderness, and I have to hack through the undergrowth with an axe or a machete, trying to find my way to the heart of the story.
That, in the end, is what it’s about for me. Finding the heart.
