Drafting

I’ve written nine books and am working on a tenth.  That said, the quality of my writing has varied wildly.  Some of what I wrote, like Salvation Day or Akeldama, are fine.  Some, like Akeldama’s sequel or the weird post-apocalyptic telekinetic thrilled I wrote are…well…a dumpster fire.  Looking back, I’ve tried to determine what is different between them.

The answer – drafts.

Each book that is decent started multiple times, each one working its way through how to introduce the characters and plot.  They didn’t just barrel in and find themselves out in the middle of a wild story that grew out of control.  They also didn’t just feed the reader information, but rather let the story develop, like a chef cooking a quiche instead of getting impatient and turning it into scrambled eggs.

Now look, I hate writing multiple drafts.  It’s up there on the scale of being despised the way I view The Last Jedi.  It’s more work on something I already thought I’d gotten through.  It makes me feel like I wasted a lot of effort and am starting from scratch.

Of course, that’s nonsense.  Each rework brought something new out in the story, and it allowed it to flow more naturally rather than just be an in-your-face thing.  What builds my frustration with multiple beginning drafts is that I’m impatient and want to get out the story.  It’s all in my head, so why can’t people just see it?

I reworked Akeldama and Salvation Day several times over the course of months which is what slowed the pace and let things proceed on a scale the reader could follow without being overwhelmed.  The other books in my inventory that aren’t even close to ready for release were done in one draft, which lends to why they’re an incoherent blob of thought rather than a refined story.  It’s work I know I need to do, but that doesn’t make it less taxing to do.