Novel Writing - Day Three

June 4, 2008

(Note: This post was originally published at All Freelance Writing.)

Today was the third day of experimenting with the First Draft in 30 Days program for drafting / outlining a novel (as discussed in this post). I’d already mapped out the basics of my characters and settings. Today was about the plot.

While I had the main plot pretty much in mind, this step was good for me. It made me think a bit more about the climax and, more importantly, my subplots. I realized I didn’t have quite enough of them, but was able to flesh it out a bit today, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll have enough going on to keep things interesting now.

The next two days will be my first days of doing any free form writing - mostly laying out the beginning summary-style. I’m really hoping to get that done in just one day so I can get ahead of the game though (to leave myself an extra research day if I might need it, or to simply finish in less than 30 days if that’s possible).

EDIT: I did end up spending some extra time in the evening on the next step, and actually did the work required for days 4, 5, and 6 of the plan. It essentially involved me doing free-form scene-by-scene outlining for all scenes already planned, and making notes of areas where scenes need to be added later and such (since some of it obviously depends on research).

It took longer than other aspects, but once I started typing I didn’t want to stop until it was finished. It only amounted to about six pages single-spaced of actual content, and plenty will get filled in with the research phase.

I did realize that I need to find a way to break up some of the natural repetitiveness necessary for the particular story throughout the middle of the book, so I may end up adding another subplot or two to explore some other things to keep it fresher - just not sure what they should be yet to stay in line with the primary story goal(s).

Anyway, that’s the progress update. Fun stuff. I’m not sure if I’ll use those three extra days I’ve just accumulated for more research, or if I’ll save them for another portion of the program where I may need more time later, or if I’ll simply finish things up a bit faster than 30 days. Either way, I’m glad I have some wiggle room.

Recent Posts Posted in Writing Books