SouthWest Writers Presents: Dean Wesley Smith on Writing Clean Drafts without an Outline

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This recording is from our meeting on May 18th, 2021 meeting, when Dean Wesley Smith gave a presentation on "Writing into the Dark: Writing Clean, One-draft Stories Without an Outline."
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[@johnneal3732]

What an eye opener! I've been cycling this whole time and getting frustrated by it because I felt like I was doing this writing thing all wrong.

[@jinchoung]

wow... this was one of the most useful talks on writing i've seen in a loooooooooong time. and it rings true! and it makes me think about how effortless it was when i was a kid and how ARDUOUS it has become since i "learned how to write" or at least "learned about the process of writing".

[@TheMsLourdes]

Cycling, I fell into that with my latest book and it is so comfortable to do. makes alot of sense but I too thought I was the only one. Thanks Dean!

[@oldscribe6153]

Thanks Dean. Just finished my third novel this year (speculative fiction series), so when you speak of ‘cycling’, it jumps both my brain cells to the way I write. I come out of film writing and directing and teaching writing at University, and I use strange writing chemistry as well [1. conjecture - 2. questions (such as: What is the impact on each character about what happened?) 3. conjecture again - 4. run the movie and take dictation.] When it is down on paper, I finish the chapter - finishing is important. I do not do a rewrite pass of any kind. I do exactly what you do - cycle - conjecture - cycle - conjecture] It is a loose system. I cycle a whole chapter rather than 400 or so words. I repeat that 30 to 40 times. I give the completed chapters to my ace editor (my wife, a professional British Shakespearean actress), who approaches the material as an interpreter of meaning and a reader. It is not complicated - I write, she reads, I publish. I take ‘cycling’ from your talk with much gratitude. PS I got my students to read ‘Writing into the Dark.’ It freed them to write. Did the same for me.

[@silvervanus]

I loved this workshop! It was so good his words were really inspiring to me.

[@southwestwriters]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ExplicitPublishing]

Surely "cycling" is a form of rewriting!

[@Huhgundai399]

“I sold two short stories back in the seventies. I wrote them on a typewriter and used whiteout…” We live in a VERY different time now.

[@justinedse3314]

Always good to hear from Dean!

[@strangeplaces1480]

Good stuff. Thank you for posting

[@DestinyAlready]

this is what I'm trying to do now. write from the creative head and not the critical head. Allow the story to write itself. Allow it to unfold naturally.

[@acceptfilms9415]

Boy this was good time to party

[@joprestonbooks]

fantastic talk Thank you for posting

[@tomlewis4748]

Everything said here makes perfect sense. A ton of sense. Except for one thing: Writing a novel as a single draft and not ever rewriting is of course a particular approach to writing a novel. This is presented here as 'how you write'. Later, there is a description of cycling, which is apparently going a short distance, possibly running out of creative steam for the moment, going back, going through that chunk that has just been written, fixing things, fleshing out things, and then finding more creative steam and continuing forward from there for another chunk in first draft mode, and repeating that process. Loop, loop, loop, all the way to the end. And that is then presented here as 'how you write'. Also described is jumping in and out of the reader timeline pseudorandomly to make changes in various parts of the manuscript when necessary. All good stuff, but isn't that actually the textbook definition of rewriting? Or rewriting as you draft? Are not these two approaches then mutually exclusive? And how is this considered analogous to how readers read? My understanding is that readers do start on page one and read each word serially all the way through the last page, and that they don't go back in any kind of'cycle' mode or jump in and out of the reader timeline and only encounter the passages a single time. So while I agree with many of the other things you say, and they make sense to me, I find this particular thing to be exceptionally confusing. Maybe this is a terminology issue. Possibly you are not 'rewriting', in the specific definition of that word, but are 'revising', in the specific definition of that word. If it can't be explained that way, I find this completely impossible to understand. If we accept that terminology, that means I also have never once 'rewritten' anything. But I've done a lot of 'revision'. It's honestly not very different from my own approach. I write in larger chunks, and I revise in larger chunks, but it is really pretty much the same process. I am technically a pantser. I never ever create an outline or think deeply about what I will be writing ahead of time. But I am not just a pantser. I am also a reverse plotter, meaning once I've written something, I try to evaluate it to make sure it will make sense to a reader. If it doesn't reach that bar, I revise it. That's when the deep thinking comes into play. Tinkering after the fact does have the possibility of diluting the quality of the story. But in my experience, it has never failed to improve it. All art flows from the unconscious, so the drafting, the 'writing', the creating, comes from there. The evaluating, fixing, editing, revising, all come from the conscious mind. All I know for sure is that my process works for me. Your process apparently works for you, but I'm having a devil of a time understanding exactly what it is.

[@alannothnagle]

I think Dean means rewriting in the classic sense, where you write a first draft, then go through it again from start to finish, and keep repeating until the manuscript is sleek and polished. Perhaps the most extreme example of this standard approach is Ken Follett, who spends one year researching a book and crafting a detailed outline, then spends a second year on the first draft, and a third year on the second draft, retyping the entire manuscript in the process. Follett's great, of course, but it's a totally different way of creating a book.

[@hisalexness8478]

This is amazing! 💯♥️

[@bonniebeingbonnie001]

Wonderful video.

[@daledearing4399]

Thinking about what Mr DWS says, I realize my best writing was fun, and I NEVER rewrote...🙍🏼‍♂🤓Rule 1: You Must Write...Rule 2: Finish What You Write...Rule 3: Do Not Rewrite...Rule 4: You Must Put It On The Market...Rule 5: You Must Keep It On The Market

[@AuthorADHay]

The links on this page don't go to the site stated. So, be careful when clicking.

[@southwestwriters]

Thank you for letting us know. We will update it.

[@ExplicitPublishing]

This is more about social engineering than writing...

[@tamarleahh.2150]

This is not really helpful unless you're already an amazing writer

[@southwestwriters]

Thanks for your comment. SWW provides different types of content to help writers at various stages of their writing careers. Check out our video library. There may be something there that you'll find more useful. www.youtube.com/@southwestwriters