I've been a terrible blogger as of late, both posting- and commenting-wise, for which I apologize. I've been hard at work on my WIP, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things!
I've talked about a bare bones "skeleton" draft a time or two (which, btw, I have finished the bare bones draft of The PJ! and am cleaning it up a bit before moving forward - but it's no where near a complete first draft, as you'll soon see).
So what exactly do I mean by a bare bones draft?
What I have completed on my first draft is the main plot line. There's very little description and zero subplots. There's also very minimal development of character arcs. Basically, what I wanted out of my bare bones draft was just that - the bare minimum.
As far as word count goes, once I get this cleaned up, I'll be at roughly 30k on my WIP, which is right around or just over 1/3 completed of my word count goal for the first draft. So, yeah, lots of work to do yet. But, I have the skeleton done, and I think my it's pretty solid and strong. *insert happy dance*
So what am I doing now?
I am trying to clean what I have up a little bit before I move on. But I'm also taking lots of notes. Notes for character development, subplots, etc. I'm working up an outline of what I have so far, and once I've planned all my subplots, I'm going to update the outline to include all of the meat of the story. And then, back to drafting.
Do any of you write the bare bones before moving on the meat of the story?
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So what exactly do I mean by a bare bones draft?
What I have completed on my first draft is the main plot line. There's very little description and zero subplots. There's also very minimal development of character arcs. Basically, what I wanted out of my bare bones draft was just that - the bare minimum.
As far as word count goes, once I get this cleaned up, I'll be at roughly 30k on my WIP, which is right around or just over 1/3 completed of my word count goal for the first draft. So, yeah, lots of work to do yet. But, I have the skeleton done, and I think my it's pretty solid and strong. *insert happy dance*
So what am I doing now?
I am trying to clean what I have up a little bit before I move on. But I'm also taking lots of notes. Notes for character development, subplots, etc. I'm working up an outline of what I have so far, and once I've planned all my subplots, I'm going to update the outline to include all of the meat of the story. And then, back to drafting.
Do any of you write the bare bones before moving on the meat of the story?
This is the way I prefer to do it. It's so much easier to go in and add things later than delete them. It sounds like you're making great progress. WTG!
ReplyDeleteYES! This is the way I like to do it too! *high five!*
ReplyDeleteCongrats Jess!
I did it too. In pen and paper. Now I'm pretty much drafting again as the subplots I'm adding make a significant difference to the story.
ReplyDelete:-)
I usually write about 50k for the first draft, and then by the time I'm done with the second draft it's up to 60k, and by the time I'm done with edits, my stuff usually ends up around 65k. So, it's not quite as bare bones as yours, but I always have more to write.
ReplyDelete