We all know that the first draft just needs to exist while the second draft is to make it all make sense. That’s what the goal was for this. I have a draft zero for this project where I realised the structure was too much for a single stand-alone book, causing me to rush through to the ending. So I had something to base draft one on, after splitting it up and expanding the story.
The entire thing grew from a random scene I wrote several years ago when I was struggling with insomnia. Which happens a lot. I found it again a while later and started vaguely writing scenes here and there. When my health got too bad and I had to stop working, it occurred to me that it might be a good outlet.
Like many authors these days, I spent a lot of time writing fanfic when I was younger. It helped me cope with university, which was intense and stressful. I enjoyed it a lot and I did mess around with some more original stuff back then. I finally decided to try and make a go of it, so I did. And here we are.
After I finished draft one I took a break from it for a few weeks. I worked on book two and world-building details I knew I was going to need. A lot of experienced authors recommend this and I can see why. When you’ve spent hours and hours working on a draft, it’s all in your mind and that makes it harder to see what isn’t working. Taking a break gives your brain space to return with fresh eyes and see where changes are needed.
The First Readthrough
After I came back to it, I spent some time reading through it and making notes. I do my best thinking and planning with a pen and paper as it makes my brain slow down so I can keep up. I picked it apart piece by piece and figured out what needed changed or rearranged.
I also decided exactly what point in the overall story I wanted to end book one. I did come up with a colour coding system with coloured pens and sticky tabs. That didn’t really help me much so I retired it for the next version.
I was still shaping the story at this point and getting to know the characters. Most of the major events were pretty much set in stone but I felt the opening chapters were very slow. At this point, I was still learning how to use story structuring methods. I wanted to ensure that the plot followed a good structure that made sense and I decided to use the Three Act structure as it made the most sense.
New Software
I discovered a brilliant writing software called LoreForge. (Not sponsored, I just love it) It provides a ton of useful things. It has space for you to put characters, locations, cultures, races/species, discoveries and more. It has guidance and profiles to make sure you cover all the bits you need to cover. It also has a plotting tool where you can choose from several established story structure templates or a custom one.
You can also put in chapter and scene summaries, bookmark pages to access in a side-bar to see while writing and colour coded sub-plots. You can edit metadata for each chapter and scene with POV, characters included and link to notes. This software is so flexible and it is free for offline use or you can pay for the premium version that gives more customisation and cloud storage so you can work from multiple devices.
It has been brilliant for helping me put this story together and I will continue to use it. Books can be exported and the default formatting seems to be pretty good. My later edits are done in Word using tracked changes, one feature that LoreForge doesn’t have. But I highly recommend it for authors, especially if you’re writing fantasy/sci-fi and need to corral a lot of world-building details.
Once I had finished my readthrough and figured out the major changes I needed to make, it was time to plan out the next draft. I’ll get into details on that next week. The thing that helped me the most was taking a break from it. I don’t want to rush and put out an inferior book, especially not with my debut.
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