An interesting thought occurred to me recently
whilst pushing on with getting a first draft of my new novel down. The thought
was that whilst I was trying to get my first draft down as quickly as possible
new ideas and plot points kept occurring to me. Although I write with a kind of
outline – especially for the first half of the book, so I do not get stuck - I
also like to leave myself open to new directions as I write. And writing as
fast as possible for first draft seems to be best for me.
Some of the ideas that occurred to me were good ones
that seemed to have come up epiphany-like from the ‘girls in the basement’, but
should I stop and incorporate them? I wanted to do just that but it meant going
back and introducing something much earlier in the draft in order for it to
make sense. Which, in turn, meant that I wasn’t actually moving the story forward.
But the extra material did add more depth (or a subplot) to the story. Great
you might say…
I read somewhere that a good idea was to keep a
revision sheet alongside you as you write so that you can jot down the idea as
it occurs to you. Also to make a note of where the material needed to be
introduced (approx.) and then continue to write the draft as if the plot point
was already incorporated. Lately I have been trying this method with my present
book and it is surprisingly easy. I know I will have much more work to do in
second draft but once I have the main story down I don’t feel the pressure to
rush through that. In fact I like to take my time and re-consider everything
that has gone into the story.
Anyway this is my best tip of the year!
Do you have any good tips to pass on to others to
try?
