Tackling the Second Draft
December 2020 Gimme Five: Tackling the Second Draft
By Jen Collins Moore
With NaNoWriMo behind us, many members have thousands of new words on the page, and maybe even a completed first draft of their manuscript. So now what?
This month Christine DeSmet, Distinguished Faculty Associate of Writing at University of Wisconsin-Madison Continuing Studies and author of the Fudge Shop Mystery Series and the Mischief in Moonstone Series, shares her top tips on tackling the second draft.
1) Find your five major plot goals
First drafts have a tendency to ramble as writers explore different angles. When revising, Christine recommends focusing on the five major plot goals to bring cohesion to your story.
Christine goes back to her logline, a brief (50 words or less) summary of the plot. Then she identifies the five major plot points in the story. There are resources all over the internet on this topic, but here’s the crib sheet:
Inciting incident
Plot point 1 (first big decision)
Midpoint crisis
Plot point 2 (second decision that goes after a resolution)
Climax/resolution
If your story has these moments in the first draft, wonderful! Pay attention to the word count area where they land so you can see if they hit the right areas of the story.
If you don’t, this is the time to think about them and plan them for your next draft.
2) Check your protagonists' emotions and actions
Christine sees writers having characters “doing stuff” in their first drafts, but often without knowing why. Once you know the broad outlines of your story, revisit your protagonists’ goal and weaknesses and make sure this is driving their actions.
Just as common as action without motive is a lack of action. “Sometimes in draft one, characters aren’t doing much at all but sitting around and listening to others.” Christine says. “I remind writers all the time: You’re writing a movie in the reader’s mind. Create every scene as if it must be worthy of famous actors.”
One more thing to watch: Make sure your protagonist is worrying about the problems facing him or her. “A goal and worry are essential for pacing and tension,” Christine says.
3) Track the story logic
Christine recommends a scene-by-scene analysis of the draft that tracks important elements of the story’s logic:
Day of week/time
Plot-related action/clue development
Page or word count
This allows her to create a short outline that will help identify repetition, slow moments, skipped elements, or story changes that surprise even the writer.
This outline doesn’t require nonstop action. “Revisions always show me where I need more pauses in the action for heartfelt thoughts and conversations by my characters that readers can identify with,” Christine says.
4) Look for the treasures
It’s easy to get down on yourself when re-reading a messy first draft. All those adverbs and plot lines that don’t go anywhere can be disheartening, particularly when you compare a first draft to your last polished piece of writing. (Or worse, to your favorite bestselling author’s work.)
Christine says the second draft of a manuscript should be the time for joyful discovery. “It’s your treasure hunt, and I’ve never known a writer who has not found nuggets of greatness in their second draft.”
These nuggets are building blocks for the next draft.
5) Have patience
Revision takes time, and Christine advises writers to embrace the process.
“My motto for myself and the writers I work with has always been, ‘Write with joy, and finish with finesse,’” Christine says. “Write with wild abandonment at first and have fun. Revision also creates joy because you get those ‘aha’ moments, even when you’ve made a mistake. You get to laugh or feel pride as you see yourself in new ways and say, ‘Did I really write that?’”
Jen Collins Moore is the author of Murder in the Piazza from Level Best Books. Her short fiction has appeared in Mystery Weekly, and she is the editor of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest newsletter.