Fiction, from the First Draft Forward: Bridge the Gap

By L.L. McKinney

Last week we delved into the topic of the different kinds of writing groups out there. Though there are several types, we took a closer look at three. A writers group is one suggestion I made as a means to occupy the time between finishing your first draft and starting on the revisions. A second suggestion was to work on a different project altogether. This week we’ll focus on other work that can be done to bridge the gap. Notice: I didn’t say pass the time, because what we do is more than that, remember?

I’ve already started my own six-week break. It literally seems like only yesterday I was dreading going 48 hours without working on Swayed—now I’m already halfway there. Three whole weeks! A personal best. My Pushing Pals help stem the restlessness, but they can’t be with me every hour of every day, so I have chosen to work on a second manuscript in addition to attending group meetings.

Granted, I could spend my time doing other things to aid my efforts on the road to publication. As writers we have a checklist that can feel like it’s a million pages long and filled with so much to do. We could read more or do research. We could look up agents to add to our lists of query prospects. We could work on our websites, update our blogs (which I really need to do), or any number of things. Actually, I do all of those, but my focus is on completing my current work in progress, and that is what takes up most of my day. My goal is to have the first draft of Heritage Blade: Awakening finished by the time my self-imposed break is up.

Working on a second manuscript keeps the creative juices flowing. I have to admit, I was worried about the coals cooling with Swayed, but I am amazed at how often working out things for Awakening gives me ideas for when I start on Swayed’s second draft. I don’t spend more than a moment jotting them down in a notebook I keep in my work area-- that way I don’t break the out-of-sight-out-of-mind rule-- and then I go right back to writing. One thing that amuses me in all of this is how a number of problems that arose while working on Swayed are cropping up all over again. But this time around I have a better grasp on handling them.

One of those complications, the one that drives me the craziest, is writer’s block. (Okay, I lied.  But not intentionally. This article will focus on two things.) A lot of methods I learned while writing Swayed in order to deal with blocks have come in handy this time around. These methods have helped me with writing novels, short stories, and even poems. They are...

Alternate Scenes:
Take your protagonist, antagonist, or whichever character is giving you trouble and plop them down in a random scene that is not a part of your main plot. Present them with a problem or have them react to an event that is still a part of their world but outside of what you’re trying to do with them. You can even set your character in my favorite kind, the what-if scene: what if, earlier on in your plot, they chose to go left instead of right? What if they decided to run instead of fight? What if the hero wasn’t too afraid to put the moves on their love interest? That’s a lot of untapped material that can start the flow, and who knows, maybe you’ll come up with something you can add to your manuscript. Or maybe you have the makings of a sequel.

Prompts:
These are those phrases or sentences that can spawn short stories or entire novels. There are countless books filled with prompts that we can put to use. One of my writing groups spends ten to twenty minutes each meeting writing little blurbs based on the same prompt, then we take turns reading them aloud. It’s a lot of fun, and can be done alone or with friends/colleagues. You can even combine this method with the previous one and use a prompt to write a scene about one of your characters. All kinds of literary gems will turn up!

Problem Solving:
The thing about writer’s block is it tends to crop up when we know what needs to be done (i.e. the hero needs to confess his/her love), but we just have to figure out how to get the character to do it.  And what’s the biggest help when you don’t know how to do something? Instructions! Problem solving provides those instructions tailor made for your manuscript. I’ll use myself as an example of the process: at this very moment I am at a point in Awakening where a big secret has been revealed and I am having trouble writing my protagonist’s reaction. I don’t want it to be over-the-top, but I don’t want him to just accept what’s going on. After struggling with this for over a week, it was suggested to me that I write down what I wanted to happen. I wrote that I want my protagonist to be surprised but not hysterical, maybe try to laugh it off, and then grow nervous when he sees it isn’t a joke. It made me take stock of what I wanted to accomplish and what I wanted to avoid. It gave me a sort of checklist to follow when writing the scene. I’ll let you know how it turns out next week.

Exercises:
I suppose all of the aforementioned could be counted as exercises in one fashion or another, but what I mean by Exercises (with a capital E) are the activities that we’ve all been taught since elementary school. Rhymes and riddles, focus practices, formulas and the like. I remember several teachers who taught the class to use character sheets. We had to write extensive sheets, and then read what we’d already written. Everything from a character’s hair color to a peanut allergy was put on paper, and then gone over repeatedly. The idea was for us to immerse ourselves in the protagonist and antagonist so much so that they would tell us what to have them do. At least, that was the general idea. It tended to irritate my characters more than help me connect with them.

Of the four mentioned methods, the one I have found the most helpful is the first, writing out alternate scenes. Problem solving is a close second. I’m not all that fond of exercises, if it wasn’t obvious; they’re a little too rigid and constricting for my taste. Even so, they work. Each of these methods will help, in one way or another. Find one or two that work for you so you can keep up the flow on not only your gap-bridging work (what is done during your break), but also on your second draft or any projects in the future. Beating back writer’s block isn’t easy, but it can be done.

“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.” David McCullough.

Happy writing!

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.