Writing Novels #2: Drafting & Rewriting (Fiction Writing Advice)
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Learn tips and strategies for attacking the drafting process.
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Credit to SkyDilen for my video intro.
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CHECK OUT MY OTHER VIDEOS:
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Writing Scenes that Flow:
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5 Fatal Mistakes that New Writers Make
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5 Time-Saving Tips for Writers (And Readers!)
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5 Scientific Inaccuracies in Movies, TV, & Books
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Query Letter Survival Tips
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The BEST Writing Exercise Out There
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How to Write a Book Pitch
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Writing Villains #1 - Start with Your Hero
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Writing Villains #2 - Goals
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Writing Villains #3 - Motivation
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Writing Villains #4 - When to Introduce Your Villain
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Writing Villains #5 - Plot Points for Villains
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Writing Villains #6 - Impacting the Hero
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The Anatomy of Story REVIEW:
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Save the Cat Writes a Novel REVIEW:
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@rp-lopez Жыл бұрын
Harry Potter took on many many drafts before it came to it's final form. The 1st chapter alone of sorcerer's stone was rewritten 15 times
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Жыл бұрын
No kidding? That makes me feel a lot better about my WIP
@sherrihollister5588 3 жыл бұрын
I enjoy your videos. I’m a multi published author but still enjoy learning. I’m also the chairperson for a writers group and share your videos with them. Keep up the good work.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Thanks so much for sharing them! If you or your friends ever have a subject you'd like me to cover, let me know!
@PhoenixCrown 10 ай бұрын
Yes I finished drafting my first novel. I've been editing it for years now. I'm enjoying improving it as I learn the craft, and my kids won't be this little forever =)
@jvjoyner Жыл бұрын
Twice now. Going back through it is the first time writing feels like work lol.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Жыл бұрын
Haha yeah... But if you love the story, you'll find a way to push through
@terryjones6049 3 ай бұрын
Valuable videos for a new writer like me. Thanks for posting them.
@desertgecko4549 3 жыл бұрын
3:15 You're not alone starting your draft with something that excites you. I'm sure you know of James Scott Bell's books on writing, and maybe you've mentioned him in one or more of your videos. This video reminded me of one of Bell's books that a friend and fellow aspiring author recommends: _Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach._ This book is for pantsers, and it's not a gimmick. You're onto something here, Brandon. Bell promotes starting in the middle for various reasons, but I think it to be story- and style-dependent whether we begin in the beginning, middle, inciting incident, or somewhere else. Sometimes, the inciting incident _is_ the beginning. I bet many writers will find it easier to get started once they realize they don't have to start at the beginning, nor must they follow a strict outline, and that there's no need to sit for hours, days, or months trying to think up their own "dark and stormy night." 5:27 With your post-first-draft activities, have you considered outlining the draft? I've heard it suggested. Seems reasonable, especially for us pantsers, to find plot holes, incongruencies, danglers, and more. Another excellent video, Brandon. Thanks for it.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Hey thanks for the kind words DG. I am familiar with James Scott Bell's book Write From the Middle, although I haven't read it. I did, however, read the blog post it was build from and I think it's a solid strategy (any tips that help writers better understand the Midpoint are valuable IMO). And I've been promising myself to learn more about outlining. Somebody told me to check out Brandon Sanderson's videos on outlining, and he's a guru I respect, so I'll need to give them a look. Maybe I can integrate them into my post-drafting habits, we'll see.
@marthawilley5512 3 жыл бұрын
More helpful advice, thanks so much.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching
@aWolffromElsewhere Жыл бұрын
I started my first draft with one of the main cast sneaking through the villain's territory while having several near misses with his henchmen. I'm not done with my first draft yet, just nearing the mid point now, but I know in my second draft a lot of what I wrote as backstory would actually make excellent first chapters to introduce the two main character's lives before shit hits the fan.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Have you ever finished drafting a novel? If not, why did you stop? Let us know!
@potatomanboooi3105 3 жыл бұрын
i have not started on drafting a novel,i am drafting my comic and i drafted a lot of short story essays.if i ever stopped it was cuz i realised how poopy my draft was then i try to make it completely different in the final but the same story at the same time in terms of dialogue.i also love to start with scenes that excite me rather than the beginning cuz i will get stupidly lost in what i do if i don't,so i will just find some comedic idea and build onto it to tie in to make a story.how my idea for my story started was just a scene where the main character was drunk and wanted to sword fight the leader of her village and she got banned from her hometown that was the idea i started with.and then i decided to add a character arch that works with that idea.now the scene is less about being funny and more about the lie that she believes.and she gets drunk cuz she got that trait from her abusive father
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
@@potatomanboooi3105 Sounds like you're getting a good handle on it. And glad to hear I'm not the only one who chases what's exciting
@potatomanboooi3105 3 жыл бұрын
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty i just think it is more fun than following the "writer rules" but it is like art you can know the fundamentals but find interesting ways of breaking them that makes it more like a deliberate unique way of doing it.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Definitely. Gotta master the rules so you can break them
@MinecraftGuy07928 8 ай бұрын
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Ever since I started writing a few years ago, I've been mainly writing crossover fanfics because that's the creative interest that got me into writing in the first place. I've also spent time drafting out the world building of an original fantasy novel I want to write eventually, but I haven't committed to any specific characters or plot elements. My thinking is I want to finish some of my fics so I have experience writing a story in its entirety before I delve into my own fully original work. And in the process of writing these, I come up with new story elements that I can hopefully apply in the future as well.
@PuppetMaster-Blade 3 жыл бұрын
4:17 , thats exactly how i write my scenes for the first time 🤣😂. I just list key events that happen throughout the scene, i don't write dialog or extra events just the key points, and when i write my draft then I'll go in full detail. It's something i tried doing before, but my ocd didn't allow it, but a comment you wrote about just getting it done really helped me pull the trigger and do it that way again and I've made alot of progress. I just know as soon as it comes to the actual writing part imma be stuck again 🤣😂, but i guess thats half the joy in writing 😅
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
The thing is, it's a LOT easier to get unstuck when you've seen where the story can go. You've at least explored one possible path and you know how well it works (or if you need to go in a completely different direction)
@BertFurfull 8 ай бұрын
As a new writer, I appreciate the advice !
@blacksmoker2 9 ай бұрын
Thanks for the good advice. Greetings from Norway.
@gigachadgaming1551 22 күн бұрын
I pray that the second draft is easier and faster to write than the first draft 😭
@roxc.507 Жыл бұрын
I have gotten to 50,000 words with NaNoWriMo twice and in that sense, I've finished a first draft but neither one feels complete. I stopped writing them when November ended. Both times, I had planned ahead to make sure I had a lot of days off throughout the month so I could get that many words in and when the month ended, I was exhausted and had to shift focus back to other things that I had been neglecting. I still struggle with consistency in my writing. So far, the only times I've written consistently has been during NaNoWriMo, but I'm working on it.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Жыл бұрын
It sounds like you benefit from having concrete deadlines. You may want to use that to your advantage... See if there's a way you can motivate yourself by setting a specific date to finish a novel by. If you succeed, give yourself a prize of some sort. Here's something else to consider... RevPit has a submission deadline of March 16th. reviseresub.com/
@ImusakHctividar 3 жыл бұрын
Fairly good advice I'd say. Everyone's got their own process, so when you find something that works, that's great! I find that I do need a little bit of structure to work with like character bios, a rough outline - stuff like that. I'm okay with deviating if I find previous events not working or maybe things need to go in a different order. I just sorta figure it out in the first draft, then I give it some time to stew and then start tweaking stuff that may not have worked or needs more fleshing out. I can see why some people do complete rewrites (And I've done that occasionally) but I don't do it very often. I have restarted chapters I was midway through though, just 'cause I realized a part didn't work.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
I do some backtracking as well, especially if I'm in the middle of a draft and I realize "Wait, this could be way better." In general, I try to explore and find the best ideas, then do my best to logically link things together in rewrites/revisions/editing
@ThatsJustMyBabyDaddy 3 жыл бұрын
Great info.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Thanks again!
@potatomanboooi3105 3 жыл бұрын
i finally got over the struggle of not starting my story
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Atta boy! Can't be afraid of it. It's not gonna be perfect, but as long as you write it down, you have something to work with
@TheBluenyt09 3 жыл бұрын
I'll be making a novel after my Short stories. It's gonna be one hell of a journey 😎👍
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Awesome--don't be afraid of it. Just write it and do everything you can to finish it
@AnthonyLeighDunstan 11 ай бұрын
Never. I stopped because I never started. This is me starting. 😂
@chrisgarner520 3 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 17 күн бұрын
Just saw this... Thank you so much!
@Yokar_mova1212 8 ай бұрын
It's a niche topic but I think many of your audience (me including) can benefit greatly : how should we communicate the massage we want to the audience without being on the nose? Because I did the thing you mentioned 2:56 And I sent my first draft to all of my friends to hear their opinions. (They are Mainly girls it becomes relevant) Now they love a wife beating physically weak character that mentally breaks down over the mildest inconveniences. My massage was more about one sided judgements and the bullshit people spit out in public without thinking, those make people absolutetly miserable and turns a kinda problematic person into a complete asshole But everyone thinks my massage was about toxic relationships : |
@bignapolean3068 Жыл бұрын
I've written a first draft but I'm not sure what direction to take the revisions. I love the story as is but none of my beta readers finished it.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Жыл бұрын
Did your beta readers explain why they stopped reading? If a bunch of them mention the same issue, you'll know what needs fixing
@bignapolean3068 Жыл бұрын
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty No. I think they all got bored with it and I assume it's because my characters are shallow.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Жыл бұрын
@@bignapolean3068 Check out the book Creating Character Arcs by KM Weiland. That's my favorite book on character. Should give you some ideas.
@bignapolean3068 Жыл бұрын
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Thank you. I wrote the book before I read that book (and others) about creating characters.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty Жыл бұрын
@@bignapolean3068 Awesome. Keep hammering away. Try different methods of writing characters until you find something that works for you
@KKati-th6bv 3 жыл бұрын
Hi Brandon, thanks a lot for your video. I think you asked for video themes. So ... Could you please make a video about writing time (writing s real vivid book) and managing to deliver exposés at the same time? At the moment, I am struggling with many ideas, many exposés/proposals containing the plot and character development my agent didnt want and with nearly writing at all. As writing books is what I enjoy, it drives me crazy not to do it. Maybe there is another topic for a video: Writing an exposé is like being of my weak side of the brain (which should contain things like logic, procedures and the way things use to work ..🙂 etc). Could you please make a video about writing short exposés for not-plotters? Maybe there is a way to enjoy it? So if you have a magic trick, let me now... Good luck and lots of trust/faith for your writing 🐳🐳🐳 ( as I think this is nearly the hardest part to do, because writing with joy appears so selfish ..)
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Hey I'd be happy to help, but can you tell me what exactly you mean by an exposé? Do you mean like a book description? (Like something you might see on the back of a paperback novel that gives you a teaser of what the story's about?) Or do you mean a full synopsis? (The entire story from beginning to end, like what you might see in a Wikipedia article for a popular movie?) Please let me know, and thanks for reaching out!
@KKati-th6bv 3 жыл бұрын
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Hi Brandon, thanks s lot for responding and for asking. I googled it, so it is the synopsis which is so hard to do (I guess many writers are struggling with it)... you may have some tricks, new sights etc that could be inspiring. Happy easter (holi)days!
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Perfect, I'll get right to work on a Book Synopsis video. In the meantime here's the best resource I've found on writing a synopsis: www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/04/17/how-to-write-a-1-page-synopsis/ Hope it helps. And you have a great Easter as well!
@KKati-th6bv 3 жыл бұрын
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Hi Brandon, thank you so much, thats really kind! 👍👍👍 You may be interested in how-to-books about writing and own projects: the one which really helped me to finish a long project and to stay confident, was: Hayden: Getting from doubt to done. (I read one page a day to encourage me before starting my long project ..) I find the thesaurus books - like The emotion Thesaurus and the Rural Setting Thesaurus - quite helpful as well (for the editing phase).🙋♀️
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 3 жыл бұрын
Hey, not sure if you saw my latest video, but I covered the synopsis info you requested: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j613oNBqpqjYd4k.html Someone named "Kati" commented already and I wasn't sure if you were the same person. Have a great week and best of luck with the book synopsis
@pinklove7371 11 ай бұрын
When you say rewrite. Do you mean revise? Read and edit, change some dialogue, description, etc. as you go? Or read and rewrite everything from scratch? 🫣
@WriterBrandonMcNulty 11 ай бұрын
I rewrite from scratch then revise what I’ve rewritten