Turning a First Draft into a Novel
November 29, 2007 by J.C. Hewitt
I’ve got 50,000 words! What do I do with them???
I reached my 50,000 word count in NaNoWriMo and I’m proud of it. Writing 50,000 words about anything in a single month is quite an accomplishment. My schedule was packed, so I didn’t have as many hours to work on it as I would have liked. In all, I would say that I spent a mere 50 hours on my novel. That means I averaged 1000 words an hour or slightly less than 17 words a minute. That doesn’t account for the time I spent thinking about my novel the rest of the day, but it does account for all of the time I spent sitting in front of my computer with the word processor running and my novel in front of me.
I’m not really surprised at the speed at which I wrote. I once wrote a much more coherent 30,000 word novella over a weekend, so I know that I can churn out prose quickly when I really want to. That said, it doesn’t mean the novel is good yet, or even bad yet. At this point, it is merely a collection of 50,000 words about a set of characters. While I managed to give my story a beginning and an end, the story is far from finished. A quick assessment reveals the following problems:
- The plot isn’t a plot so much as a series of semi-related events. I didn’t start with a clear plot outline, and it shows. Plan 9 From Outer Space has a more cohesive plot than my novel at this point.
- Several of the characters do not have complete story arcs. They wander in and out of the story without any real resolution.
- The character with the greatest number of pages and the most complete story was supposed to be a minor character.
- My intended protagonist doesn’t feel real or interesting yet.
- Two planned characters do not appear in the story at all
- There are pages of dialog without any intervening action, narration or description.
- There are more sex scenes than a late night movie on Cinemax. (Who knows, this may be a good thing)
I’m not listing these problems to get down on myself or the process. I expected that the output would be rough. It is a first draft, and a quickly written one at that. Parts of what I wrote are very appealing to me. Other parts feel more like filler or character exploration than a genuine part of the story. Some of the problems with my first draft are unique to my work, but most of the problems are universal. A first draft is a first draft. It is created to be revised. Even second and third drafts of novels are far from complete and perfect. That is why we revise. That is why we edit.
This brings up the question, where do we go from here? There are many methods for revision, but this is the one I plan to use.
- Read the novel as it sits from start to finish while taking notes but not editing
- Perform a “light edit” (spelling and grammar) on the novel
- Reorder the novel so that it follows a chronology
- Read the novel again while taking notes AND editing
- Assemble a Style / Information Guide
- Re-evaluate the novel and determine goals
- Create a revised plot outline
- Write new scenes
- Revise old scenes
- Edit with an eye toward continuity
- Have someone I trust read and evaluate the novel
- Go through the whole process again
For the month of December I will discuss all of these steps in greater detail. I might come up with a few more things along the way as well. I would love to hear what other participants (or anyone with a novel to revise) plan to do with their work.
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20 Responses to “Turning a First Draft into a Novel”
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THANK YOU!
This is such a thorough and logical set of guidelines, I’m not going to bother with my last year’s NaNo novel after all. It was only ever practice for the real project, which I’m now able to go straight on to with the help of this plan.
When my friend Olga Novak died a few years ago, I got the job of seeing her second novel edited and published. I’m not a novelist, and as for editing, I’m a good copy editor but that’s all. So I thought I’d better write a novel to educate myself in the process.
It was great fun, but that novel doesn’t matter to me really. Olga’s does!
Rosemary, I’m sorry for your loss. Yet, I smile at the demonstration of how deep your friendship goes.
It should make for an interesting month.
Edit Your NaNoWriMo Novel Month — EdYoNaNoWriMoNoMO!
Okay…… Have you had some sleep yet?
Hi,
Since I am a begning writter the only thing I can say is that you give me so many good ideas. I have never thought of just writitng the novel then going back to it after it has been completed. I thought it had to make sense before someone or anyone in the public (in the public) I mean a close friend or on the web for someone who has been doing this for years and has had more experience. I have been over my pages about several times that might be why i cannot finish it. I want to thank you. My goal is to have atleast 20 pages completed by December 20,2007. s of now I am on page 11. This will be my first novel/book i have ever written. So well see if I’m any good at it. I hope you have had a chance to sleep or coffee intake since how you have been writting for a while. again thank you Nicky
Nicky! Cool! Just write. As ANY writer will tell you, the first draft is pure crap. But that’s where you turn off that internal editor and just get the bare bones down on paper. DO NOT talk to anyone about your novel until after the entire first draft is done. To talk about it just gives the energy away – why write it after you’ve told the story? Just write.
John,
I’ve got to ask, as a fledgling writer, what do you mean by Assemble a Style / Information Guide?
I’ve got about 60 pages and need to fill in the details of my skeletal book I’m writing.
Sounds like good advice, though I’m doubting I’ll ever get around to it since the length of my novel ballooned. Anyone here doing nanofimo? It’s national novel finishing month. I’m taking a short break before I head into my thorny plot impasse again.
Hi Jennifer,
I’ll go into it more when we get to that point. A brief description is that it is a formal guide to your book. It is a way to keep track of character details, plot points and other notable information that you need to keep straight.
Sounds good John; my wife and i both finished our novels but, like you, knew they were first draft with all the inherent weaknesses.
We’re taking the same approach with editing as we did with writing; get up early every day and give the morning to writing. It works for us. We’re following almost the same steps that you outlined except we did have style guides so we are okay there. Good luck!
Great suggestions, thank you!!
I am so glad I popped in for a quick lurk. This was my first time participating in NaNoWriMo and I did meet the goal of 50K words (very exciting; I even put my winner’s button on my family’s website
). But this is also the first time I’ve ever written a novel, or something that is supposed to pass for a novel. And while I’d like to share it with friends & family, I cringe at the thought of anyone reading it in its current state. Thank you, John, for taking on the heroic task of leading us forward into dimensions beyond NaNoWriMo!
Congradulations Marie!!!
Thank you so much for a very interesting entry! I’ve often struggled with the editing process when it comes to my fiction. I think a huge part of the problem is that in the early stages it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what is wrong and where things don’t work. For this reason I really enjoyed your list of ‘faults’. It offers a clear, precise display of what kind of elements could affect a novel and gave me some starting points to check for in my own work.
One interesting point you mentioned was that the character with the most words wasn’t your intended main character. Perhaps this is a sign from the characters that your focus has been the wrong person. It could be worth looking closely at why this other character has taken on a significant portion of the work so far. Perhaps they are the one who deserves the staring role?
I’m looking forward to more posts on ‘novel editing’. You have a way of making what often feels (to me) like a daunting task an exciting opportunity to flesh out and pull together the strings of a novel. It’s this vital process that gives books the depth and intricacy I find so appealing when I read and that I’m trying to work into the novels I write.
Hi Rebecca,
I will certainly be evaluating who the novel will focus on. It was always meant to have multiple prominent characters though, so the adjustment isn’t as traumatic as it might appear on the surface. One of the main issues is that there is still a lot left to be written. The finished novel will almost certainly be longer than the 50,000 words I have so far.
Four of your comments referred to characters, whether lack of “realness” or level of focus.
One recommendation that we often make to authors is to create a separate biography for each character, asking such questions as “What drives this character?” “How is this character relevant to the central conflict of the story?” “How is this character connected to other characters” and “What unique characteristics does this character possess?”
Finally, have the courage to cut mercilessly and the passion to add enthusiastically (then, probably, cut again).
Congratulations on your 50K words!
Hi David,
We actually did quite a bit of this before NaNoWriMo:
[...] is time to revisit the novel editing process we began in December. The first three steps in the novel editing process [...]
I just finished my first draft. I didn’t hit 50k, but feel like I have plenty to work with. I’m closer to 37k words.
I’m about to xerox the entire manuscript, get it bound, and go over it with a high lighter, but at this point I’m torn between further defining themes, refining characters, and just getting the plot together. It feels like somehow it needs to all happen at once.
Thanks for posting your plan of attack. I’m going to see if I can get it to work for me.
SDR