Updates and Writing Phases: Drafts

Updates

Spoiler City has received some new content. If you go over to look at it, just keep an eye out for the Spoiler Level. It'll let you know which books you need to have read before viewing the pages linked there. If you've already read both books, swing by to check out Behind the Writing: Dragoon. Spoiler City is also home to the War of the Princes maps. I've got a huge one in the works that will be posted soon.

Writing Phases: Drafts

A lovely reader on Facebook inquired how writing was coming along, and I shared with her this screenshot of my composition window in Scrivener. The background blocks out any distractions on my desktop. Hey, no groaning! You know I couldn't actually show the text!

Writing anatomy is back! Hurrah! As I mentioned in a previous post, I've already laid down the foundation of the entire book, the "bones" of the story. It turned out to be a detailed fifteen page synopsis that covered everything from plot points to character development. Because I was so thorough, I've been able to lay out my chapter titles and brief descriptions in my Scrivener manuscript.

I'm currently in the drafting phase of writing, the "meat and muscle", the real body of the process. Because I was able to lay out my chapters, each one acts as a goal projection or a marker so that as I tell the story, I don't go rambling too far away from the main plot lines. I also don't end up losing too much time scrapping whole sections of the book. Sure, occasionally everyone needs to rewrite a chapter or five, but spending a little more time on the "bones" can save you an evening of feeding four hundred pages to your paper shredder. Of course, there is no right answer or uniform method to doing anything. At the end of the day, whatever works for you is fantastic!

Some may cry out into the night, "A. R.! You've taken the freedom away from your writing process! Won't I be stifling my creativity if I plan everything out?" My answer to that is, "Why no, of course not." It's all coming from you anyway. All you're doing is rearranging the manner in which you lay out your work. You can't lose your creativity. Ever. Novels are long, there's plenty of time and opportunity for your characters to surprise you, or for a planned chapter to morph into something bigger and badder. It happens to me on the daily. :)

Now that I'm in the "meat and muscle" portion of the work, my days are consumed by three all powerful letters: W. P. D. The Words Per Day. It should have its own theme song. For now this will be the sound effect I assign to it.

I'm a gamer. You probably know this. So, back when I was writing Haven, I made a myself a WPD goal chart (I decorate EVERYTHING, don't make fun of me!) and this is it.

If you're wondering why I don't do things by 500's, it's because I'd rather give myself a higher goal. I usually keep 2000 my minimum daily goal.

The image on the right is an example of what comes next in my process. It's not 2014 or January, so this is obviously not my current set of notes. Though, I have this exact calendar book. Yes, I've decorated it even more than it already is.

I always keep a little monthly calendar book on me, and at the end of every day I write my total word count and WPD score on the page. I do this no matter how low my word count. If I can't write that day, I'll jot down the reason. Sometimes editing/rewriting can strike and the total WPD is smaller than normal, but it still counts as a time consuming work day.

Anyway, this was long-winded, but hey, if you got this far it's because you were interested for some reason or another. I will not apologize for my actions! Not on this day.

All yours,
~A.R. Ivanovich