What Are The Stages Of Drafts? I'm Trying To Write My Own Book But I Dont Know How To Draft Properly

What are the stages of drafts? I'm trying to write my own book but I dont know how to draft properly and I feel like I'm gonna be stuck in a gutter if I don't know

Yesssssssssssssss someone finally asked it!!!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to explain this and show everybody my inverted pyramid :D :D :D

I present, The Inverted Pyramid of Revising a Book

image

Now I’ll explain each section of the inverted pyramid:

THE FIRST DRAFT

This should be self-explanatory. You write the first draft. For novels, 75-150,000+ words of the world inside your head.

PLOT, CONTENT, SCENES, AND MAJOR CHARACTERS

Go back and fix it all up. Did you tell the story you wanted to tell? Did you include scenes and events that add up to the conclusion you present?

Are there any unnecessary scenes you could delete, or scenes that are redundant to other scenes? Get rid of them. If this means entire chapters have to go, wave bye-bye.

Do your main characters have believable back stories and arcs, and do they act appropriately in character at all times?

Is there any point in time when your characters do something that they literally WOULD NOT DO? Change that up.

WORLD-BUILDING, CHARACTERIZATION, HONING IN PLOT POINTS

Now pay attention to the deeper aspects of the story. Delve into the world your characters live in. Do they react appropriately? Does any part of society influence them more than others?

What does your world look like? Delve into the setting. The cultures, the technology, the history.

Work with your secondary characters and how they interact with your main characters. What role do they serve overall? Does the main character’s journey affect them at all, or vice versa?

Tighten up plot points. Stay concise if possible.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE, FLOW AND PACING OF SCENES

Now that the major parts of your story have been patted down, you can begin focusing on the technical stuff. Start broad.

Do you have redundant sentences? Do you start multiple sentences the same way?

Throw in short sentences.

Drop the pronoun from the beginning of a sentence every now and then.

Use commas instead of ‘and’ if you find you use ‘and’ a lot.

Does the flow of sentences and paragraphs fit with the tone of the scene?

Chop sentences apart. Use quick, sharp words.

Or combine sentences and flowery language and soft words.

BETA READER CRITIQUES AND SUGGESTIONS

Now that you’ve really patted this thing down, find people willing to read your work (hopefully for free).

Ask them to point out inconsistencies. Are they confused by anything?

Beta readers can tell you when things are boring or exciting. They’ll laugh. They’ll fangirl. They’ll beg you for more chapters.

Your brain is soft from so much revising. Beta readers are fresh, and will pick out things you’ve glossed over from seeing it so many times.

Shake things up and host a video chat for you and your betas! It’s a great way to make friends :)

PUNCTUATION AND MISSING WORDS

NOWWWWW you’ve finished all the major revisions and your story makes sense!!! All that’s left to do is get the broom and sweep it up (or the vacuum cleaner, or generate a black hole from the Large Hadron Collider to suck out all the errors because that’s super-effective**).

This is the nitty gritty stuff, and I highly recommend either forcing yourself to read really, really slow, or better yet, read your book out loud, start to finish.

You’ll trip up over misplaced commas and periods.

You’ll literally hear when a sentence is awkward.

Your brain will get confused when there’s a missing word.

Fill in the gaps, hammer down the boards, tidy up the place like you’ve got guests coming over.

THE FINAL DRAFT

OMG

OMG

OMG

OMG IT’S FINISHED AND YOU CAN SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD AND BUY PHYSICAL COPIES THAT YOU CAN HOLD AND SMELL AND RUB ALL OVER YOUR FACE AND DRAW IN AND DOG-EAR AND TOTE AROUND TO SHOW PEOPLE AND SIGN AUTOGRAPHS AND BECOME YOUR OWN LITTLE CELEBRITY!!!

Email the newspaper (I’ve appeared multiple times).

Email the local TV station (I’ve appeared on live TV).

Email book talk radio shows (I’ve had a Q&A for an hour on live radio).

……..Marketing is hard.

I hope that helps!

N.B. **please do not ask CERN for permission to use the Large Hadron Collider to create black holes that suck out all the errors in your book. You’ll look silly, and you might destroy Earth in the process.

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Write them to show what’s healthy. Write them to show what’s unhealthy.

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I see so many people telling writers to avoid anything that could be problematic, like writing about it is supporting it. They fail to see the importance of writing with depth and meaning. 

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BEFORE OVERWATCH

2016- Reinhardt Wilhelm is born

2017-Ana Amari is born

2020- Torbjorn Lindholm is born

~2021-Gabriel Reyes is born

~2022–Jack Morrison is born

[2027-Serena “Veil” Jones is born]

2028- Mako “Roadhog” Rutledge is born

~2036- Mei-Ling Zhou is born

2038- Hanzo Shimada is born

2037- Jesse McCree is born

Angela Ziegler is born

2039- Genji Shimada is born

[2039: Naomi “Cherub” Williams is born]

[2040: Ava “Gadget” Kelly is born]

~2043- Amelie ‘Widowmaker’ Lacroix is born

2044- Fareeha “Pharah” Amari is born

OMNIC CRISIS

~2046- The Omnic Crisis Began

Overwatch was founded, enlisting Gabriel Reyes, Jack Morrison, Ana Amari, Reinhardt Wilhelm, Torbjorn Lindholm and Lio

2046- Sombra is born

Bastion is made

2047- Winston is born

2048- Satya “Symmetra” Vaswani is born

Aleksandra “Zarya” Zaryanova is born

2050-Omnic Crisis ends

Post-OMNIC CRISIS

2050- Lucio Correia dos Santos is born

Lena “Tracer” Oxton is born

2051- Jamison “Junkrat” Fawkes is born

~2053-2055- Sombra is taken in by Los Muertos

~2054- The Omnium is destroyed in the Australian Outback

~2056- “The Reaper” starts appearing

Mercy joins Overwatch

McCree is forced to join Blackwatch

This picture is taken

image

2056- Tekhartha Zenyatta is either made or gets consciousness

South Korea is attack by omnic monstrosity from the sea

2057- Hana “D.Va” Song is born

~2060- A polar storm hits Ecopoint:Antarctica and Mei and her team are forced into cryostasis

~2066- Ana is shot by Widowmaker and presumed dead

~2069-2070- Allegations against Overwatch are made

Blackwatch is revealed to the public

2070- Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes are caught in the explosion at the Switzerland Overwatch headquarters, presumed dead

~2070-2071- Overwatch is shut down

Post OVERWATCH

~2071- Mei is discovered in cryostasis

Mei saves a nest of endangered arctic wildlife

Lucio leads an uprising against the Vishkar Corporation

~2073- D.Va becomes the #1 StarCraft player in the world

~2075- D.Va joins MEKA

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