As a newbie writer, I completed my first Fast Draft. I was elated.  I even did the happy dance.  I couldn’t believe just how much I learned and of course, I had to share.

Plot And Plot Some More!  For me, it was truly a timesaver and stress reliever to have the story plotted ahead of time.  I was really blessed; my friends helped brainstorm the story.  Then I used The Book Buddy to get my thoughts down.  It allowed me to have all the main points of the plot and the character development done before I sat down to write.  It cut down on some of the “blank-screen-staring” that so many writers go through.   At the same time, it still allowed me the freedom to change several scenes and add twists and turns to the story.  I had confidence starting out, that the main points needed for my wip was already plotted.

Perfectionist Be Gone! This was a fast draft, not my final draft. I had to remind myself the scenes weren’t going to be perfect, that’s what edits are for.  I got the scene down and moved on.  There were lots of asterisks with notes to go back and insert the missing pieces.  I didn’t want to get bogged down trying to stop and find a metaphor or describe the scene so I would insert and asterisk and write in “add metaphor” to keep going. It’s easier (for me at least) to revise a scene, than start with a blank page.

Find & Replace Word Search.  I realized I kept using the same word or phrase repeatedly.  I went back and did a word search afterwards.  It was almost embarrassing, but hey I caught them right?  Utilizing the find and replace feature in Microsoft Word helped.

Emotional References & Journal.  Sometimes I didn’t feel I captured the true emotion of what the character should be feeling.  There are several books that help give you a good starting point for basic emotional responses and I found it helpful to have that resource handy.  It gave me a starting point and a couple of times I pulled my own journal.  Reading my journal reminded me of my own emotional responses which in turn, helped me put it on the page.  Later I went back to refine.

Visual Reminders.  Since I am a visual person, I printed out a few visual aides to keep me from getting off track and meandering in my writing.  I posted them around my work area to keep me focused on the key ingredients for each scene.  The main visual aide I utilized was the Scene Starter Infographic.

By the way, I looked up fast drafting in the MBT Library and got information for help with fast drafting.  You can find it by clicking here.

What about you?  What have you learned from fast drafting?

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A romance novel addict, Alena juggles life in the family business while mothering four zany kids. She ponders the beginning aspects of a writer’s life while enjoying real life with her family.