Finish Your Book in Three Drafts
Stuart Horwitz
is the author of Book Architecture: How
to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula, and Blueprint Your Bestseller: Organize and Revise Any Manuscript with the
Book Architecture. He recently discussed
“Finish Your Book in Three Drafts” with the Palm Springs Writers Guild.
Horwitz’s methodology combines “keep it moving” aspects sure to appeal to
pantsers (authors who prefer to write by the seat of their pants), and fresh
organizing tools for plotters (writers who like to outline their plots).
First Draft
“The memory is the best way to discover the memorable.”
One of the three main concepts in Horwitz’s Book
Architecture Method is scene. After your first draft has
been completed, Horwitz suggests breaking down your book into scenes. Make a
scene list without looking at your manuscript. Write down every scene you can
remember. Chances are, you will remember the most crucial scenes.
Next, print your manuscript and take the scissors to it. No,
don’t destroy. Cut it into scenes. You may notice a few skinny strips of
paper—tiny scenes that aren’t crucial to the book. Throw them in the To Be
Deleted pile.
Second Draft
As you plow through your scenes, a pattern should emerge:
your theme. Now you can develop a second writer’s tool, a series grid. Horwitz
defines the word “series” not as a series of related books (such as The Teen Wytche Saga),
but as “The repetition and variation of a narrative element so that the
repetition and variation creates meaning.” Horwitz
sites J.K. Rowling’s series grid,
but you may find it easier to decipher a transcribed
version of her grid on C. S. Plotcher’s guest post on the wonderful blog, The Better Novel Project.
Once you have your scene list, your scene cut
outs, and your series grid, draw a bulls-eye/target and place your theme
in the center. Now take those cut up pieces of your manuscript, your scenes, (or
as Horwitz says, “series”) and arrange the core scenes/series around the
bulls-eye.
Third Draft
“Not everything needs to change.”
Decide which scenes need to be cut. Then ask yourself, “What
is missing?” Revise accordingly.
A Fresh Feeling
Often by the time a writer completes a final draft of their
book, they have become burned out on the story. Horwitz believes his method
will get you to the crucial final draft while maintaining a fresh feeling about
your story. For any author (raises hand) who has hit that editing wall,
Horwitz’s “Finish Your Book in Three Drafts” is worth a try.
Ariella Moon is currently revising The Viking Mist, Book Two: The Two Realms Trilogy.
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