It’s Day 8 for NaNoWriMo and I am on target to finish my story. I am, as always, completely disgusted by my first draft (because first drafts are essentially buckets of chum we must throw into the creative waters in order to entice the Story Shark).
One thing I notice about myself, and many other writers, is that the First Draft becomes the “And Then” draft.
This means that events just seem to happen. A lot of the time this is the writer just setting out scenes they like. You want to write a certain action, so you do, and it doesn’t matter that there is little motivation going in or out of the scene. Throw enough of that together and it’s just chaos.
Stories need to have consequences. Each scene needs to have a want, a need, and an ending. Everything in your book should happen BECAUSE OF something, not just because it was time for that to happen.
I believe it was Pixar that said: “It’s okay for a coincidence to get your character into trouble. It is not okay for coincidence to get them out.”
As you continue your writing, look at the consequences of actions by your MCs. Look at each chapter and subchapter and ask: Is this happening BECAUSE OF what just happened? Or, could I write AND THEN to have the same transition?
Always be WRITE!