Do you draft before you draft?

[u/jemmly]

Hi all!!

I'm getting into writing a new novel idea and wanted to see where everyone stands with drafting. For my first book I wrote almost entirely by the seat of my pants but it took 4 years before I finishes that book and that doesn't even including the editing stages.

I'm thinking of trying trying draft a bit more this time around to save my brain from falling into circles trying to chase my plot. I feel like there's a line with having too much detail for your 1st draft and absolutely too little detail.

How much do you draft before your first draft, or do you skip it entirely? Just getting a feel for how others do their processes!

[u/Capable_Active_1159]

The thing with pantsing, gardening, whatever you want to call it, is you shouldn't be just writing whatever comes, chasing your plot. You should know your start, and have an idea where your finish line is, but let your legs do the work to run you from a to b, instead of an outline. Let the characters speak.

We're all discovering writers, at the end of the day. Just some people like to have a thorough plan for every step in the race, where others prefer to just go.

All that to say, I gardened all but one of my novels. I started about three ish years ago. Wrote 1.1 million words not last year but the one before it. An average of 3000 a day for 365 days. The fact is, regardless of plotting or pantsing, it should never take 4 years to finish one draft of a book. If the problem is not a lack of consistent writing, then it's a problem of approach. So if you were putting in work over those 4 years, consistently, then absolutely try plotting out your book. If not, you should lock in on this next novel and do your absolute best to get it done faster this time

[u/jemmly → u/Capable_Active_1159]

In the beginning of that novel I definitely wasn't as consistent as I wanted to be. I was about 30k words in and I wasn't feeling confident as a writer. Then came nanowrimo and I pushed through and finished that month [my first nano ever too lol] and got my book caught up to 80kish. I finished the final 24k words two months later as I had burned myself out for once. [Going from almost nothing to a full on sprint was not easy]. I found my ending and having a snippet of an goal for the next scene I knew would exist kept me going. I wonder if the snippets would work now when I don't have much planned in the beginning or if the snippets only worked because my beginning had already been written, ya know?

[u/Capable_Active_1159 → u/jemmly]

How I manage my pantsing, is I find an interesting spot to start the story. I typically have a vision for what the character arch will be, overall, and the end result. I write the first chapter and go to the next, and I let these chapters dictate or alter the course of my idea for the ending. Then as I get more ideas, I add them onto the end of the current chapter, removes them as I get to them, and add as I have more. But it's always loose. Maybe an idea for a line. A twist. And I'll go with it to the end. I find always having an idea where the next scene will go helps me get through faster, because I'm eager to get to the next scene and the next. The biggest problem I have is shifting from set up early on, and payoffs later, and exactly when to start giving more payoffs and less setup. I would advise you to practice writing like nanowrimo every month, if you can, without burn out. That's pretty much how I did 1.1 million words in a year. Do that, and you'll go places you never imagined.

And, also, your first drafts should get neater with time.