Completing a first draft of a book creates so many opportunities to the writer. The story could end up being not all that different to what the draft is, or it could end up being a new book completely. A kind of resurrection.
I took a book I have written and simply changed the world in which it was written, and added some extra stuff to support the new world and the intervening storyline. Though this might seem hard it really isn't, well I don't think it is. To test your own knowledge and skills take any book you have read and then think about it in a totally constructed world of your choosing - sure, there will be some fundamental changes but in all reality most of the actual storyline itself will remain.
It truly is possible to get several books, all very different to each other, out of the one first draft. This is like creating one skeleton, then running through a variations of body types to hang on that skeleton.
Perhaps I do see this as simplistic, then I do not see writing in general as a majorly arduous task, but more an expansion of my general thinking and imagination. For me, with my completed first draft, it is like working clay - it took time to find a clay deposit, time to dig it and even time to pick through it to get out the impurities, but now I have the clay and the molding can begin.
My clay started out as a single point of view contemporary story dealing with living on the streets and having a drug habit with some coming of age situations and salvation through unusual avenues. Very normal type of story really and it will one day make a great final draft book, but I wanted to mold the clay differently to what I started with.
Now I have a steampunk murder mystery weaving its way through class-ism, morphine use and the trade in precious metals while all aboard a giant submarine.
That might sound like a massive step, in fact it does sound like a completely different story altogether. In a way it is different but only by about 50% from the original concept, including characters.
How can this happen? Well, a street corner becomes a hatchway, a building a compartment, a drug addiction (okay that stays the same) and the blue sky become the underside of deck plating. The motivations of the characters remains the same, the storyline dealing with issue remains similar and the events leading to murders are the same.
Why don't I just write another story altogether. Why indeed. Why start again when I have all I need already. Pictorially things have changed on a grand scale, socially things have taken some interesting sidesteps but at the heart the same story is being told.
So far so good. I have worked through 5 full chapters (15000 words) and have a story that on quick glance looks nothing like the original, and that is the real fun part - I have a first draft that when compared will look nothing at all like the final draft -- unlike some writers I find this challenge totally thrilling and a real test of my skills.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
From the first draft
Many writer like to start blogging from the first word of their manuscript or journal the journey towards the end. To be straight up with you, the perhaps new writer, if you don't have a rough first draft to start with you will only be wasting blog space. Every writer struggles with plot, character and the silly expression of 'My character has a mind of his/her own', it isn't new or newsworthy.
But...
If you have the first draft, all the wobbly writing the sketchy story line you do have something to crow about and start documenting the journey. This is where you take what is essentially a load of piss poor crap and mold it into something even your worst enemy will want to read.
I have started the rewrite of my novel (title deliberately not disclosed), or perhaps the writing of my novel into something that will proximate its final form. Some hard decisions had to be made. The first draft was a contemporary setting in my home city dealing with a troubled character and the harsh realities of living in a city. It all felt right but was it something I wanted to write - well at the time it felt like an important story, and I still believe that, but the contemporary setting just made it far too harsh and the reality very difficult to form into a story someone might actually enjoy reading.
Yes, there are time when it is the message that governs the eventual outcome, but I don't write to deliver in your face messages, I like to hide them, bury them under other interesting things and hope for people to discover them later.
The novel has indeed shifted so I could hide the strong social commentary while delivering a more interesting and entertaining story. I kept the original file and created a new one just for the story redirect. Now what I have is a gritty Victorian Steampunk techno thriller beneath the ocean in what could only be described as an alternate universe. That is a big jump to make, a whole different kind of mindset to start with.
So, can the first draft of one story end up the final draft of another, or the final draft be the same story only in a very different place and time? Perhaps. I am now writing the new second chapter which sits between the original 1st and 2nd. How do I feel after making it through a complete restructure of chapter 1 - better. much better. The story I want to tell is still there, but the entertainment I want to deliver is being injected into the work.
Until I had that completed first draft I essentially had nothing - now I have a book, a real book that has heart and soul.
But...
If you have the first draft, all the wobbly writing the sketchy story line you do have something to crow about and start documenting the journey. This is where you take what is essentially a load of piss poor crap and mold it into something even your worst enemy will want to read.
I have started the rewrite of my novel (title deliberately not disclosed), or perhaps the writing of my novel into something that will proximate its final form. Some hard decisions had to be made. The first draft was a contemporary setting in my home city dealing with a troubled character and the harsh realities of living in a city. It all felt right but was it something I wanted to write - well at the time it felt like an important story, and I still believe that, but the contemporary setting just made it far too harsh and the reality very difficult to form into a story someone might actually enjoy reading.
Yes, there are time when it is the message that governs the eventual outcome, but I don't write to deliver in your face messages, I like to hide them, bury them under other interesting things and hope for people to discover them later.
The novel has indeed shifted so I could hide the strong social commentary while delivering a more interesting and entertaining story. I kept the original file and created a new one just for the story redirect. Now what I have is a gritty Victorian Steampunk techno thriller beneath the ocean in what could only be described as an alternate universe. That is a big jump to make, a whole different kind of mindset to start with.
So, can the first draft of one story end up the final draft of another, or the final draft be the same story only in a very different place and time? Perhaps. I am now writing the new second chapter which sits between the original 1st and 2nd. How do I feel after making it through a complete restructure of chapter 1 - better. much better. The story I want to tell is still there, but the entertainment I want to deliver is being injected into the work.
Until I had that completed first draft I essentially had nothing - now I have a book, a real book that has heart and soul.
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