Back Away From Your Computer!

The more we blog about our routines, the more Stephanie and Shonna and I realize how different we are! I am sooo not like Stephanie!  LOL!  Yes, sometimes I get caught up in the 80 directions a story could go if I let my imagination run wild. But I’m too much of a control freak and have too great a need for accomplishment and closure to let a story go on too long. When we’re talking, I sometimes want to approach Stephanie like a wild deer, quietly, hand extended, whispering, “Just back away from your computer, Stephanie.” Read her blog from Monday to understand why! 

I only do two or three drafts of a story if I started out with an outline and didn’t confuse myself out of the gate. (Note to self: Do not let the NaNoWriMo free spirits talk you out of doing an outline beforehand. Remember the catastrophe of 2007!) The first draft is more or less what I had in mind, per my outline, with occasional bursts of “Oh! This will be great!”

In the second draft, I go through Draft 1 and write a sticky note for every scene with a single sentence for each. I put these in order on a laminated sheet I created in Lauraine Snelling’s Advanced Fiction Intensive Week. (It’s butcher paper with squares drawn on it the size of my preferred size of sticky notes. Along the top are the steps of the Hero’s Journey. It’s basically a huge sheet of laminated hand-made graph paper.)

I use a different color of sticky note for each major character’s POV, and one more color to be used for all minor characters’ POV. (This is assuming a single title novel. In the category romance I’m writing now, it only has the heroine’s and hero’s POVs.) I write the current chapter number and/or page number on the corner of the sticky note so I can find that scene easily in the final document of the first draft.

(I save my work every day as a new file just in case something happens that I wish I could undo. So my first draft file that I work on today would be named “1D 0128.doc”. I know it’s part of the first draft, and I know when I worked on it in case I think – oh man, I deleted that whole section around the end of January and now I want it back! If I worked on the second draft of a book today, I’d name it “2D 0128.doc”. Using numbers instead of letters keeps your files in chronological order. Sadly, a file named “August 15″ will appear above “January 28″.)

Looking over the sticky notes in their current order, and with the color coding, I can tell at a glance if I’m over- or under-using a POV. But most importantly, I can see if the story beats are in the right order. I move the sticky notes around, adding new ones (in a new color to remind me it’s a “Add This Scene” note), and occasionally deleting scenes that aren’t working.

Then I open a new blank document and start copying and pasting the scenes from the original into their new order. Where the new scenes are to be added, I just write in all caps – ADD SCENE: [and the one sentence I wrote on the sticky note]. I used to cut and paste the scenes into the new correct order in the current document, but then I’d start losing scenes. As soon as you move the very first one, the page numbers you wrote in the corner of the sticky notes are no longer accurate. Much easier to copy into a new document.

After that, I go back and write in the new scenes, read it over to make sure it feels right, then check for areas where I can improve the dialogue, the setting, word choices, sensory choices, etc. One more read-through and – wait for it, Stephanie! – I’M DONE! Time to work on queries and proposals! 

If this method sounds like something that can help you organize your editing, please use it! And let me know if you end up liking it.