Writing Advice | Fast Drafting a Novel | How I Wrote 80 Thousand Words in 26 Days

[@SofiyaPasternack]

Thanks for watching this video of me in my awkward growing-out-my-hair stage! NaNoWriMo approacheth, so brush up on your fast drafting skills and win the heck out of NaNo this year!

[@jwstanley2645]

I have not tried this with an entire project, but perhaps it is worth a try, largely due to one point. You said that sometimes in writing you come to a point in the story, where you want to add a thing or a twist or something creating a need to change somethinging written earlier. If you go back to fix that previous issue, then you loose the flow of the workpoint. True, so true. Given that I do not use the same software, the question is how to do this in my software, Word. Thus, what I will do is add these 'do' items in end notes. Later, in editing, I hope it will be easy to look at a long list of endnotes and spend a period of time making those fixes. Thanks for the idea.

[@eska3472]

Hello, I just found this video and it was really helpful for me! Especially the part with the list. Before this video I also used a list but nevertheless I went back and changed things when I found something. But I really think your method will save me lots of time and I'm not changing chapter 1 forever... Thank you!

[@AprilHayman]

This is pretty similar to what I do, which is iteration (loosely "borrowed" from agile project management). First, I write Outline 1, similar to the 7 point method. Each beat is one to two sentences long. Next, is an iteration of that but developed into paragraphs. It's longer but not finished. So no description, maybe bits of dialogue. Just straight action for the most part. Then I review and revise as needed. And then on to write Draft 1, which is still choppy but reads like a badly written book. Again, another round of revision to make sure there's no major plot holes. Finally, I write Draft 2. This is the final run through to make it as smooth as possible before sending it out to beta readers. I know it sounds like a lot of work but it helps my inattentive, perfectionist brain time to deal with the material before I move on. Each Outline phase takes two weeks, maybe. Drafts are three to four weeks. As a side note, I also homeschool and work from home so my writing time is smaller than I'd like. Anyway, if you have questions, feel free to contact me!

[@raina4732]

Thank you for this advice! I have a big perfectionism problem, where I can’t move on unless the sentence is perfect, and then I get very slowed down with prose and lose sight of the overall story. I’ll try this method, to allow myself to make the first draft less perfect, and write it more to see that the overall plot and character development works.

[@pebblescarpetcat]

I wish I'd learned this faster :') After 7 years of meander writing, I learned all this yes, but now I have a million and one things to go back and tinker tonk. At least I know now, for my next book. If I ever get there haha... Thank you very much for this comprehensive guide!

[@ClassicCase]

So if you add in the time of thinking and developing it in your head (which is ALSO time spent on your novel) fast drafting is not that much faster than pantsing.

[@kaylajames3098]

Yes. Lol.

[@OtoLivingston]

Thank you Sofiya. I found this very useful. Can’t wait to put this into practice

[@tarakamala8759]

Thank you so much, this was soo helpful. I just finished my first novel, wich took me 4 year, and didn´t know what to do now, exept that I don´t want my next book to take as long as the first one. Now I feel like I can achive that! (And sorry for all the language mistakes, I´m from germany)

[@SofiyaPasternack]

Hey Tara! I'm glad this video was helpful! I've found that every book I write, I get faster and better. It's that "practice makes perfect" thing in action! (And no need to apologize for language mistakes! High five yourself instead for learning a second language!)

[@karentodd419]

Thanks, Sofi! I needed this sooooo much.

[@slaniss]

Seriously, i think you would be amazed if I'd show you the plan I am making for my fantasy novels. Where I have only plotting notes for my thriller or other types of litt I write, I have an extraordinary amount of ressearches and planification when it comes to fantasy. I've got 5540 words right now in my planification document for my serie (I plan between 5 and 9 books) and many many many many inspiration images for it. However, I sometimes waste my writting/planning time on searching for more images to get more inspiration from it. I'm French first language, be nice all.

[@Yarnspin]

So helpful! Thank you, Sofiya!

[@SofiyaPasternack]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching, Carla!

[@krimbliqkah4523]

I think the twitter link may be broken?

[@ChronicReader]

I have been doing fast drafting for NaNoWriMo and I love it! I don’t do it quite the same way, though. I write scene cards, so I write using split screen in Scrivener, with one side open to the scene card for what I am writing. That way, when I sit down to write, I know exactly what I am doing. I do make comments when I need to go back and change something, but I will actually go back to that chapter and just write it on the notes section for that document i the inspector. That way, when I go back to edit, I see what is in that chapter that I need to fix. If I have something for the entire story, I write it in the notes section for the entire story.

[@SofiyaPasternack]

I like that scene card strategy. That's smart! I'm kind of too much of a mess to use the cards that well (in Scrivener or in real life lol) so just a freeform list works better for me. If I have to fiddle with cards, I'll get distracted by SOMETHING. 😭