Finishing First Drafts

It has been several months it seems since I posted last. In fact, my last post was March 24th, a little more than 3 months ago. Where have I been all that time? I've been here, working away. As a school-based speech-language pathologist (SLP), the end of the school year is always really busy. My district started summer break at the beginning of June and it has been very nice to rest and recover from the school year. However, I have been working on the first draft of a book which is very long. Today, July 5th, I finished it. Before I changed the page size from 8.5" by 11" to 6" by 9", the book was around 724 pages long. I forget the exact number. Now, in its book size, it is 1305 pages long. This is what I have been busy working on. Unfortunately, it also means I have neglected this blog, my YouTube channel, and social media accounts. That being said, I have no regrets. Why? Because I enjoy writing.

So, how did I get so many pages written between February and now? To be fair, some of it had been written before. It is part of a three-book series of sorts which takes one event in three different directions. That is all I am willing to share for now. I often hear people say that they have a hard time finishing writing a book. I am sure it is not the same for everyone, but at least for me, every time I have trouble finishing a book it is because of one of three reasons.

First, I don't actually know how it ends. Sometimes, I can write on the fly, and the story unravels naturally and with ease. Other times, it doesn't and that is okay too. In such cases, I shift strategies and take time to play around with ideas in my head while also stepping away from that story and working on something else that is flowing freely in my mind. For example, I have a fantasy book that I have been working on very slowly over the last several years, but I keep getting stuck. I have found that by working on other books, it gives my brain a break from that story so that when I come back to it, the story clicks and I can continue writing it.

The second reason I sometimes have trouble finishing a story is because I need to develop my characters and world more. My stories tend to be exploratory in that I mentally pose the question, "What would this character who is like this do in this particular situation?" I then spend the book exploring the fall out of such a situation or event and watch as the character/s respond. Sometimes, they grow a lot, sometimes, there is more of a focus on sticking to what they believe. Either way, I find it absolutely fascinating. If I do not fully understand my characters and the world they live in (i.e., culture, history, relationships, politics, etc.) then I will not be able to write how they would act, think, and speak in such a world and situation. In this case, I take time to expand my characters by writing out a summary about them and giving them more background to explain why they are the way they are. This has helped me immensely in adding depth to the plot.

My third reason why I sometimes have trouble finishing a story is that I am trying to force something to happen that doesn't fit. I might plan to kill off a character, but when the moment comes, it just doesn't work. Don't try to force something to happen for the sake of an outline. You have to be flexible and sometimes you have to give in to the character. I once planned on killing off a character, but as I was writing, it was almost as if the character came to life, outfighting and outsmarting me. If you have a very clever and skilled sword fighter, they aren't going to go down easily. Don't discredit them by forcing them to be killed easily. Another example is perhaps if you have two characters whom you want to end up together. But for some reason, it just doesn't seem to click. Maybe they shouldn't be together, and you need to look elsewhere or simply let them be single. Not every romance has to work out in your story.

One reason I used to have trouble with but have conquered for the most part is one that I see many people struggle with. They will tell me that they have trouble finishing writing a book. When they talk about it and show me, they don't ever have the first draft done. If you take away nothing else from this post, please, at least remember this. Your first draft does not have to be perfect. Just get the story down. You can always add idioms, metaphors, and long paragraphs of beautiful description later. Your first draft isn't the one that is going to be published. People will say something like, "I just can't quite get the wording to sound right here." Please, don't worry about being too specific on your first draft. It is a draft! If you have to, then write, "Jan saw a giant monster" and then move on. Don't dwell on the details unless it is coming swiftly and easily. When you go back to edit, change it to be more detailed now that you know the rest of the story. Perhaps you change it to something like, "Jan's eyes went wide as a great green beast with oozing skin slunk across the parking lot." Both tell us the same basic information, but editing gives us the opportunity to go into detail. Think of your first draft as more of a detailed outline. It is far easier to be descriptive, add more depth, and expand on plot when you have that first detailed outline done. I still sometimes catch myself falling into the trap of attempting to perfect the first draft, but I have improved a great deal. Now, I just need to work on finding that sweet spot in editing so that my books are high quality, but they actually get completed.

I'm sure there are other reasons why people do not finish their first drafts, but these are the main ones I've struggled with. Hopefully the tips I have shared with you are helpful. Be looking for more blog posts now that this intense first draft is over and I'm on summer break!