Five Crucial Tips for Turning Your Faltering First Draft into a Strong Second Draft

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Congratulations! You’ve finished your first draft. Tell all your Facebook friends, crack open that bottle of bubbly, and enjoy.

Take a few days off – or a whole week. You’ve earned it!

Of course, you probably know that your job isn’t done. Your first draft is full of raw power and dazzling sparks, but it’s also ridden with plot holes and loose threads and imperfections.

So take a break, get some distance from your work, and reconnect with your loved ones (remember them?) before you dive back in.

As Darcy Pattison puts it in After the First Draft:

It's another long stretch of road, but you can do it. You've made it this far and there is no turning back now.

Once you’re ready, here’s what to do:

Tip #1: Read Through the Whole First Draft

Don’t grab page one and start editing – set down your red pen for now. Put your novel into a reader-friendly format (I used to print a copy on Lulu; nowadays, I just transfer the manuscript to my Kindle), and read it from start to end.

You can make notes along the way, if you spot anything egregious – but your main task here is to simply take the story in as a whole. This should give you an idea of whether it’s paced well, whether any scenes are too brief or too long, and whether your different characters are getting the right amount of screen time.

Tip #2: List the Big Stuff You Need to Fix

Chances are, you’ll need to make some major changes to your first draft. (If you’re better at plotting things out before you begin than I am, you might have an easier time here!)

These big changes might include:

• Cutting out characters who just aren’t working – especially if you abandoned them a third of the way into draft one. You may also want to merge two characters, or give a particular role to someone new.


• Thinking about the backstory for your characters. Sometimes, this might mean cutting out backstory that doesn’t quite fit, or that you added in to fill out a scene. Other times, it might mean putting in backstory that helps explain their motivations.


• Making sure your characters behave consistently and in accordance with the demands of the plot. If it’s really essential for them to go back to the haunted house that any sane person would run a mile from, make us believe that they have no choice. (Perhaps they left something – or someone – behind.)


• Removing scenes that aren’t adding to the overall story. This can be really tough if you love those scenes – but be ruthless. You’ll know which these scenes are: they’re ones you can remove (or perhaps summarize in a couple of sentences) while the story remains intact.


• Adding missing scenes where you’ve skated over something important. Occasionally, you may have avoided writing a tough scene that really does need to be included. It might be a painful conversation between two characters, or a showdown between the hero and villain.

Tip #3: Make a Spreadsheet

This is one of the tips I always mean to follow during my first draft ... but never quite seem to manage.

When you’re writing and rewriting a whole novel, usually over a period of several years, you need a way of keeping track of essential details from scene to scene or chapter to chapter.

Your spreadsheet should have a row for each scene and include the following. I’ve given a brief explanation of why these are so useful, too!

1. 1.     The day / time the scene takes place. If you don’t track this, it’s all too easy to have two scenes set simultaneously when they need to occur in sequence, or to have a character take a ten-hour drive in two hours.


2. 2.     Whose point of view the scene is from (if applicable). If you’re using multiple viewpoint characters, either in first person or third person, you’ll want to keep track of how much “screen time” each is getting.


3. 3.     Which characters appear in the scene. If a bunch of scenes go by without your main character appearing, you may need to re-jig things. This can also help you spot characters who aren’t pulling their weight in the story.


4. 4.     A note about where any important items or similar are. If your story includes a ring of power, or something more mundane like a letter that must not fall into the wrong hands, then you definitely needs to keep track of where it is / who it’s with.


5. 5.     A brief one or two sentence summary of what happens in the scene. If your summary looks like “Alice talks to Bob” or “Alice thinks about her problems” then it might be a good candidate for being cut. This summary also helps you track the flow of your story.

Tip #4: Don’t Get Feedback Yet

It’s a great idea to get feedback on your work-in-progress ... but hold off just a little longer before sending it to your nearest and dearest (or your team of beta-readers).

Your first draft probably isn’t in a good state for feedback. There’ll be plenty of problems that you already know about – and you’ll find yourself writing instructions like Ignore Susie, she only appears in chapter three, I’ve decided to delete her or Don’t worry about the sudden reveal in chapter ten – I’m going to work that back into the rest of the story.

It’s better to get your second draft finished before letting anyone see it (you could make an exception for your partner or mom). That way, there’s still plenty of room to make significant changes, but you won’t be distracting your readers with obviously unfinished material.

Tip #5: Find Your Best Way to Rewrite

I like to rewrite by starting again with a blank page. I literally rewrite every single scene, often changing the viewpoint or the location, and only rarely keeping a sentence completely intact. This quote sums up how I feel about the first draft:

The first draft is just a skeleton – just bare bones. It’s like the very first rehearsal of a play, where the director moves the actors around mechanically to get a feel of the action.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

This method works for me – but it might not be right for you. If you’re better at planning than I am, or if you write more carefully during the first draft, you may find that you only have a handful of scenes that need a total rewrite.

If you do decide to edit straight onto the screen, always keep a back-up of your original version -- just in case you change your mind! (And think about posterity: one day, literature students might be poring over your first draft...)

Your second draft isn’t quite the end of the story, of course. Most writers will need at least a third draft, and often a fourth and fifth. Go further with 5 Things to Look Out for When Self-Editing – but make sure you’ve got all your big-picture changes done first.

 

Do you have any great first-to-second draft tips to share? Let us know in the comments.