I just finished a first draft in 11 days.
And I’m not even exhausted!
The complete first draft of Lysistrata Cove represents a change in my understanding of novel-writing. After two books that took me years to write and edit, I know now that I’m, first and foremost, telling a story, and that I work best when I know what the story is, how it got started and how it ends. I tried to leave things open, so that I could do what authors talk about all the time and learn from my characters, but it just left me floundering eventually, hunting and pecking for the impetus to throw them over the cliff or the strength they’ll need to figure out they have wings and can fly.
James and I developed a story, capable of being told in a handful of paragraphs. Then I mapped the story to the dramatic arc, the three-act play, Campbell’s hero cycle, Hauge’s six stage plot structure, using all to some degree and some quite carefully. Using Scrivener, I broke the story into sections (folders): Enemies, Softening, The Fall, Point of No Return, Major Setback, Dark Night of the Soul, and Epiphany and HEA (Happily Ever After). I wrote a synopsis for each scene (individual documents), with 4-6 scenes in each section.
Only at that point, when I had exported all that into MS Word and had a detailed, 10-page synopsis, did I go back and start doing character sketches.
Then I sat down, after several months of thinking over all that, getting to know these people in my head, and started writing. In writing, I didn’t linger on setting descriptions. Lots of scenes take place in amorphous surroundings, which I’m fleshing out in the second draft. But I got the thrust of it down. It’s tight, spare, and plain, but it drives.
Now I’ll go back and add some lushness. I’ll bring the sensual aspects into flower and consider where (not whether) to add more sex. After all, all the best reviews of my work praise the erotic bits.
Blue Water Dreams
First word to completed first draft: 1 year
First word to publication: 9 years, 3 months
Heart of the Lilikoi
First word to completed first draft: 6 years, 2 months
First word to publication: 6 years, 11 months
Lysistrata Cove
First word to completed first draft: 11 days
First word to projected publication: 10 months
The more you write, the more you write. 🙂 Same holds true for me that every book becomes faster (though a deadline certainly helps).
I’m curious about your method of doing story beats first and then the character sketches. At first it jarred me to read that, and then I started thinking of all the ways that might benefit an overall story. I love learning how other writers work!
Enjoy adding in the “lush” – this is my favorite part of the writing process!