Your Complete Guide to Prepping for a Successful First Draft
Strict schedules really bother me. Kind of like clothing that is too tight, or small spaces. I feel restricted and panicky when I have a super tight schedule to follow.
You know the kind I mean—7am brush teeth. 7:05 brush hair. 7:10 meditate. 7:20 shower.
But even though I hate strict schedules I LOVE being productive. I just want to be productive on my terms. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
The kind of planning I like is much looser. For example: At some point around 6am or so, get up for the day. After that, brew coffee. Then sit and read your Bible with your coffee until the kiddo wakes up. Then do dishes while you get breakfast ready.
That, for real, is my morning routine. And I love it!
I didn’t always have this routine, though. My morning used to look like this: Wake up to a tiny face smooshed into mine saying, “Mommy can I get up?” Blearily put on glasses and stumble to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast and look sadly at the detritus from the night before. Feel like you need Jesus already and it’s only been five minutes of adulting and look longingly at your Bible.
That “routine” wasn’t a routine at all, it was me hoping that things would magically happen the way I wanted them to, that meaningful things would show up in my life without me trying.
It doesn’t work like that! And guess what—it won’t work for your story either.
Isn’t this just what we as writers do when we sit down to write a novel with next to zero preparation?
We sit down to the page and hope our beautiful, partially formed and wobbly story will appear on the page without planning. Without purpose and intention. We call it artistic license and not smothering creativity. We call it freedom. But the reality is we aren’t setting ourselves up for success. We aren’t setting up guidelines and direction that will help meaningful things happen in our story.
So, what do we do, when we don’t want to follow rigid outlines for our story and want the freedom and joy that comes from discovering our story on the page—and at the same time, want to give our story some structure to make sure the important things are showing up and that all our words and scenes and fun will end in a functional first draft and not a throw-away draft?
Well much like my super flexible schedule, there are ways to plan for writing a novel that give the story a strong foundation on which to flourish without sucking all the fun from the process of watching the story surprise you on the page. Here is your complete guide to planning for your story so you can have fun AND set your first draft up for success!
Story Pillar #1: Theme
The most important thing to figure out before you sit to draft, or even plan, is what your story point will be. In high school or college English classes, this was called theme. But I like to use the term I learned from Lisa Cron and Jennie Nash and call it a story point because there can be multiple themes in a story, but really as a writer, you usually have ONE specific point you want to make, some truth that is driving you to tell this story.
--What is your story point?
Story Pillar #2: Character
Next you want to make sure not only that you know your main character, but that you know the right things about her. The important things to know about your character that I most often see writers skip are these:
1. What does your character want? Tangibly? What goal is she pursuing?
2. How will your character change from beginning to end? Be specific here. Lots of times we (I!) tend to get all mushy and vague with this part. I think “She will step into her power!” Which is an okay place to start but not enough to really get a clear arc going. Be as clear as you can, even if it sounds like the oldest cliché in the book. And make sure that you not only know what she will become in the end, but where she will start.
Here are the other pieces you want to flesh out for your character:
--Why she wants what she wants.
--What she thinks will happen if she doesn’t get what she wants.
--What is standing in her way of getting what she wants both internally and externally.
Story Pillar #3: Plot
For this one, I know your hackles might start to raise, your skin might be itching. I can feel the strict, rigid plot outline coming! You might be thinking.
Nope. You’re fine. All you really need to know before you start a first draft is beginning, middle, aha moment (that’s a Story Genius term), and the ending. The MOST IMPORTANT piece of those is the aha moment and the ending.
I know from painful experience that writing your way to a mysterious ending does NOT end well. You need to spend time deciding what is going to give your character their big aha moment and how your story is going to end.
Even if the ending and aha moment end up changing, having specific scenes/events in mind as you write changes everything. It’s the difference between shooting blind and shooting with your eyes open. Even if your arrow misses the target and lands in a nearby tree trunk, at least it’s the right general direction—and at least you were aiming in a specific direction.
Wild shooting leads to story casualties. Like dead novels lying in the bottom of your computer never to see the light of day.
Trust me, I have several of those.
--What is your beginning, middle, aha moment, and ending?
Story Pillar #4: Conflict
This one has two main parts to it. The first is figuring out your antagonist. Arguably, this could be under the character section, but I find it more helpful to think about your antagonist in terms of what conflict she will create. When fleshing out the antagonist, here are two main checks I like to make before I start writing:
1. Do I have one main antagonist? I know. This one seems obvious. And it totally is until you sit to write your story. So before you start drafting, just take a step back and ask who (or what) is the main antagonist in my story?
2. How does your antagonist challenge the protagonist in a way that forces the protagonist to change in the way they need to change? This is an issue I see come up often with my writers. It happens because often one idea came before another—either the arc came first, or the villain came first but they usually don’t materialize in a neat package on your first try. They come in fragmented and you have to make sure your ideas are building on each other and not just lining up like dutiful soldiers. So take a second to check this before you start drafting. It will save you many headaches later on!
The second part of the conflict pillar is related to other pieces you’ve already explored, but since story can be a bit of a slippery eel sometimes, I like to have different ways of look at the same thing. So the other things I ask are:
—What is the one action my main character pursues through the story? (I got this one from John Truby and it’s a game changer. It forces you to boil down all the huge momentous things into that one driving goal for your main character.)
—What will the protagonist learn and how will the conflict specifically challenge her in that area? (This is a repeat of the above question about how the antagonist will challenge the protagonist in the right area, but it bears looking at it from this angle as well.)
BONUS Story Pillar #5: Setting
What?! You said four pillars! Yes, I totally did, but since fantasy writers are often creating entire WORLDS we have one extra pillar that we can explore before we start drafting. This one is completely optional, but I found it made the actual drafting experience MUCH smoother for me and it also made some of my key settings feel more like characters in my story.
Here are some dos and don’ts:
· Do explore and have fun with the visual side of key settings in your story.
· Don’t feel like you have to flesh out every tiny detail about every place your characters will ever go.
· Do explore general or specific ideas for your world that you already know and see how they might play forward in your story.
· Don’t download those HUGE world building checklists that say you need to know the economic history of all the countries and kingdoms in your tiny made-up world.
· Do get a feel for what you might see, taste, smell, etc… in each key setting.
· Don’t get frustrated if you get stuck on one of the five senses and can’t think of anything. This is about exploration not rigidity.
· Do use all kinds of resources—Pinterest, art books, walks, geography books, whatever you want. Pull what you love and leave the rest.
· Don’t feel like you have to create every tiny detail from thin air. That isn’t fun and it isn’t possible. Even if you think you made something up completely original, odds are it isn’t. There is nothing new under the sun.
Side note: I used the setting template in Scrivener last time and found that one worked great for me! Also, I first had my lightbulb moment with doing this kind of setting prep work by reading Rachel Aaron’s book 2k-10k. I highly recommend it!
I hope you loved this guide to prepping for a successful first draft!
If you want a handy resource for making sure you are ready to draft and have your foundation set, you can download my handy Pre-Drafting Story Checklist here. (Note: If you already have access to the Inkling Secret Library, I’ve uploaded it there for you!)
And if you do all of this, but still are unsure if you’ve got these pieces nailed, if everything’s working together well, or if you are stuck at any point in the process—I’ve got a new service for that.
It’s called the Story Inventory Check! It’s a fast way to make sure your story pieces are solid before you dive into your draft.
You guys I’ve drafted first drafts without this and I’ve done it WITH all of this. And while sometimes you just wanna write already, I learned that it’s WAY MORE FUN to draft when you have this information ready to go. Give it a try. I think you’ll find you like it!
Resources mentioned in this post:
Anatomy of Story by John Truby
2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron
*Note: Some of those are affiliate links, just FYI :)
