Organizing My Drafts

@godlyfantasy12

Ohhh, I’m kind of in a similar position as I’m writing the second draft of a WIP. I’m keeping some scenes, shuffling some around, and adding new ones. It’s been a fun juggling act 🥴😂

I don’t know how much of a plotter you are, but having a big picture idea of your plot is going to be super helpful. You don’t necessarily have to write it down if you’ve already gone over it a lot in your head. I knew some major plot points in my book, but I knew I needed to flesh out the in between stuff because the plot was moving too fast. I wrote down some scenes and ideas that I needed to include, and then took it character by character. I wrote a character’s name and underneath put things I needed to fix about them in the second draft, mostly relating to plot. For example, I determined one certain character needed to be more prominent after the midpoint, while another needed to have more scenes highlighting him before the midpoint. Idk if any of that made sense, lol. XD

Starting a new doc can help too. Copy and paste your favorite version of each scene into that new doc and start rebuilding a new working draft. You can also leave spaces in between scenes and chapters and add your own notes, like, “add more Aravember cuteness here” or “add scenes that highlight Jocelyn.” (sorry, couldn’t resist pulling our your charrie’s names. XD)

Basically, understanding and establishing what you want in the final draft will help you as you write/build the second, third, fourth, etc. draft. Having that goal helps to keep your writing and editing on track, POVs balanced, and plot moving at a good pace. It’s not a foolproof way to edit, but it has helped me, understanding where I want to go with this story and how I plan to get there.

I’ll let you know if I think of anything else. This is my first time taking a second draft seriously XD so I’m still learning, lol.

I hope at least some of what I said made sense. I feel like I was kinda rambling and just getting my thoughts splattered on a post. 😂