What I learned from scrapping an entire novel draft
Scrapping a full draft is as scary as it sounds. Here's why I did it.
Hello and Welcome to the Writer Story!
I wanted to share with you why I scrapped an entire draft of my novel WIP. Actually I scrapped two entire drafts of the novel.
You must think I am batshit crazy to do that. But you must know those two drafts were about 70k words each. I still hadn’t reached the end of the story and I just knew that I will never be able to converge all the loose threads. There were too many plot holes, too many story lines which didn’t feel satisfying and things were just not landing right.
I don’t know how best to explain it. But I just knew it wasn’t going to be the book I wanted to write. So I booted it.
Opened a fresh document and started typing again.
But before that… there are a few things I did first.
I answered the below five questions about the story.
What do I want the reader to take away from the story? What do I want the reader to feel?
What should be the voice of the story? Is it philosophical? Is it introspective? Is it light? Does it focus on social inadequacies that creates all sorts of emotional wounds? A little bit of everything?
Which parts of the story fell apart in the previous drafts? And which ones worked?
How to make the concept stronger? Pitchable?
Where the book is likely to be placed if it gets published?
When I write a novel, I always like to think of when it gets published. Who is the reader? what will be the comps? what is the genre?
Some might think that these things are too far fetched. But I like to think them as my motivation.
After answering the above questions, I did a rough plot outline. I am not a real plotter, but having a rough bullet point outline gives me enough guideline to fill in the gaps with whatever fancies my characters. One day I’ll share my rough outline structure. Not today.
After doing all that, I’m happy to say that I have completed the first draft of the story. It was not easy. But I feel good about it. And now I am off on the editing wagon. And we are just getting started to get all the pieces in place. But now at least I have a skeleton to work with.
By scrapping two drafts of the story, this is what I learned.
Throwing away drafts is not the end of the world. They are only words, and there is an unlimited source inside you.
The more you write, the better your writing will become.
Understanding your character goal, motivation and need goes a long long way.
Getting in line with your end goal with the book also helps your characters steer in the right direction.
Focusing one day at a time, gets you to the end, irrespective of whatever hurdles come along.
Okay, I stop here today. Keep writing, one day at a time.
Thanks for reading The Writer Story. You can find me on social media - Twitter/X - @authoranima or Instagram - @authoranima
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Until next week,
~Toodle-oo~