Congratulations! You just completed your first draft! Now what?
In this essay we are going to show you step by step how you can approach the dreaded 2nd draft of your story and not feel so overwhelmed.
Draft 2 can feel intimidating. There is a lot to think about. But when you have a game plan laid out, approaching your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 20th draft won't feel so monumental.
Your 2nd draft is the sculpting phase of the process. You have all the material you need. Now it's time to shape and refine your story, layer by layer.
2nd drafts are like onions (or parfaits). Each layer of edits has a specific focus or goal in mind.
Unfortunately, many writers try to tackle their 2nd draft all at once.
We are intimidated by our 2nd drafts, so we barge in head first and start reworking everything without a real method to our madness.
This all or nothing approach causes our story to develop unevenly.
We change one scene only to find new scenes no longer fit together.
We change dialogue so much we lose track of who our characters are.
We change character names, because we run out of things to change.
We ultimately end up changing things so much, we become lost in our own story.
Change doesn't always mean better, unless it is done with purpose. By focusing on 3 key areas to analyze our writing, the process of crafting a new draft becomes that much clearer.
Step 1: Structure Pass
If the table you are making has a wobbly leg, no matter how much you polish it and make it look pretty, that table will still not functioning the way it is intended.
Structure is the foundation of your story and ensures that it progresses in a fulfilling way.
But how do we know if progress is being made in our story?
This is where the importance of having a strong physical goal (a goal we can see) comes into play.
This external quest is our indicator if the hero(es) are able to accomplish what they set out to do. Think of this like a yes/no question.
Do we end up finding Nemo? Does Frodo destroy the ring in the fires of Mordor? Does Katniss Everdeen win the Hunger Games?
Look at the building blocks of your story (Inciting Incident, End of Act 1, Midpoint, Low point, Resolution). Do each of these major moments in the story help or hinder your protagonist from accomplishing their visual goal? How do the scenes in between these points lead us up to those pivotal moments?
Structure is the engine that keeps your story going. Without it, your story isn't going anywhere.
Step 2: Theme Pass
Does your character change their beliefs over the course of the story? Is the central question they have to answer about themselves solved by the end?
If structure deals with the external elements of the story and if your protagonist accomplishes their visual goal, then looking at theme is to look internally at your character's emotional journey and what they have to learn.
What flaws do your characters exhibit? Are they able to overcome them and learn the life lesson they've needed this entire time?
We may have fun watching your hero trying to save the world, but understanding your theme gives their journey meaning and forces us to care about them. It is this change in their beliefs that tug at our heart strings and keeps us coming back for more.
This key change in your character's mindset will also be intrinsically linked to your character's ability to overcome the obstacle of your story and finally win the day.
You can't do what you've never done before without becoming someone you've never been before.
Step 3: Character and Dialogue Pass
With the plot points guiding us through our story, our theme keeping the story's heart pumping, now comes the final major pass of our 2nd draft.
We need to make sure that our character's actions and what they say help to further the story and still align with how the story has developed.
Ask yourself, would my character still do what they're doing based on what they ultimately need to learn and to progress the story forwards?
Does their dialogue match to where they are emotionally within the scene? Do the other supporting characters sound consistent within their own motivations in the story?
What our characters do and say need to reinforce the lesson being learned and push the story forwards in a new direction. We don't want to preach to our audience, but there needs to be a cohesiveness between plot, theme, and characters for the full impact of the story to land home.
By taking a focused approach at writing your 2nd draft, through structure, theme, and character, you can see how each of these elements works to weave a story together, leaving your audience thinking about the journey your characters just took them on long after they read:
The End.