the craft. drafting.

Our First Ten Pages workshop has turned into a bit of an accountability group that’s now meeting monthly. It’s been a great time to revisit the idea of starting from scratch with a story. In those beginning stages, I was reminded about the idea of not treating the work preciously. Meaning, you don’t have to keep everything you start with just because it was the first idea that came into your head.

In Angie Thomas’ craft book Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal for Writing Your Truth, she mentions a “zero draft.” This is the draft before the draft where she can explore different elements of her characters, their interactions with family and one another, motivations, voice, and much more. She can even play with things like tenses. It’s a place to try different things and get a feel for the story before having to commit to the pressure of a full on draft.

For me, this is what I’d been referring to as a skeleton draft in my own process. In my skelton draft I’m working to get the story out. All of the language is very plain. And mostly I’m trying to get a feel for the plot. What happens? What things lead to one another? Who are the players involved? It almost becomes a bit of a beat sheet. A way to keep my thoughts focused on where the story starts and ends because I want to make sure I don’t forget my ideas.

Before I was able to write a full-length novel, I was always writing short stories because I was constantly rushing to the end. That was where writing to “see where it went” always led me. I know there are different schools of thought on approach to book-length storytelling, however, I have found that some type of outline even if it’s really loose makes for a more efficient process for me. Once I feel like I’ve hit all the beats, then I go back to revise in a way that fattens up the story and adds real depth to the characters.

I also do some of the additional work Thomas mentions on the side of my skeleton draft. For me, that’s in a notebook. For instance, in my current work in progress, I wanted to write some journal entries from the main character’s perspective. Not because I wanted to include them in the story, but because I needed to understand more about how he felt. I needed to be able to put his feelings in first person so I could actually write better in third person in my draft. I’d also handwritten some chapters there before committing them to a Word doc. Kept a log of characters and did some profiles there.

Whatever way you approach it, as a zero draft or skeleton draft with some side bar material, I think the bottom line here is that there tends to be some planning and play involved before actually getting down to the business of drafting.

The reality is that once you start writing chapters and scenes in what feels like a formal draft, everything feels a lot more delicate. This sandbox that you can create before the “real” work, definitely helps alleviate the pressure of having it all perfect in a draft. It also gives you a great sense of direction so that you’re not meandering on the page.

Even as you start the drafting process, it’s important to remember that it’s just that, a draft. There’s a reason for that. One thing I can say about the publishing process is that your draft will go through many iterations of itself and that’s OKAY! Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, you cannot be afraid to blow things up and start all over again. I promise your new ideas will be just as good and most often even better than your original thoughts.

The key is to make sure you keep a second document of anything you may have scrapped. For me, that ensures that it’s under safe keeping which helps give me the courage to take a scene a different way. Or really revisit the dialogue with a fresh take. I can always pull something back in or use it somewhere else, quite frankly, if I was really in love with the prose.

I know we have so often heard the idea that the work is really in the revision, but it truly is. When it’s hard for us to start again or rework entire sections, I believe our fear is rooted in the idea that we gave our best on that first try. But I love what Dr. Maya Angelou said about creativity. Essentially, the more you use, the more you have.

You will continue to find new ways to evolve your storytelling and improve upon what’s already on the page. Your draft is resilient and tough and ripe for revision. So don’t shy away from that. Get it down for yourself first, and then go back to work on telling the story to others.

Writing/Job Opportunities

Hannah Keegan is on the lookout for smart, zeitgeist-capturing feature pitches and essay ideas for Stylist Extra. If you have an idea you’re passionate about and think would be a good fit email hannah.keegan@stylist.co.uk.

Black Boy Writes & Black Girl Writes Mentorship initiative is accepting screenplay submissions for their program until Dec. 18th.

Nylon is hiring an Entertainment Editor. (70k).

Slate is hiring a Co-Host for their podcast, ICYMI. (Brooklyn).

The National Partnership for Women & Families is hiring a Director of National Media. (133k).

University of Pennsylvania is hiring a Marketing and Communications Writer.