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#0018 The Nine Draft Process - Part 3

Writer's picture: AlexanderAlexander

I’ve spent the last two years reading the internet and listening to podcast, attempting to find the most efficient way to write a book with minimal costs. There’s a tremendous amount of information out there. So much, in fact, that you can easily get lost among it. I’ve been diligent in recording what has and hasn’t worked with The Visions of Bezek. As a result, I’ve developed a process that I’ll be applying for future projects. If you’re interested in learning about it, or trying to find your own way, I’ll be laying out the process over the following months.


I call my process the Nine Drafts Process. It lays out clear steps to go from concept to a ready to publish book. Each step is a different draft serving a specific set of purposes along the way. The drafts are:


  1. Conceptual

  2. Outline

  3. Flat

  4. Focused

  5. Polished

  6. Proofing

  7. Formatted

  8. Testing

  9. Final


In part one, we discussed the necessary software for writing a book. In part two, we discussed the Conceptual Draft. In part three, we’ll discuss the Outline Draft.


The goal of the Outline Draft is to transform the Conceptual Draft into an outline. This should be pretty easy in most cases. Besides the transformation, this is also an ideal time to set word count goals.


Last time I created a Lead Document example. Now we’re going to create an outline from that document.


Here’s the lead document from last time:


FILE NAME: HP Inspired Lead Doc


CONTENTS:

  • Harry Potter Inspired, boy with a mark, parents are gone, has the potential for special powers. No magic school.

  • MC (main character) has a mark on shoulder, like Harry has a bolt on his head. Instead of Voldemort being a separate entity, he’s a dark entity sealed into the mark. He took over the boy’s body at some point and controlled the boy.

  • The boy killed his parents while possessed, but doesn’t remember it.

  • Theme: Self-Confidence. As the boy loses self-confidence, the power of the entity sealed within the mark gains more control.

  • Theme: knowing who you are. If the boy doesn’t know who he is, the entity can control him.

  • Character growth. The boy learns to be confident after learning that his lack of confidence allowed the dark entity to control him and kill his parents.

  • Plot points:

    • Life without remembering the past

    • Incident at school

    • Boy looks into the death of his parents and finds dark secrets

    • Foster parents are at risk / school at risk

    • Will the boy reign in the darkness

    • The story leads you to believe that another party killed the parents. It’ll be a twist to find out that the boy killed his own parents.

  • The boy’s personality should not lead the audience to know he has a dark side.

  • Do the foster parents know?

And here’s the outline I’ve put together:


Word Count Goal 60k

  1. The Second [Parts are named after the number victim] 20k --The day at high school is strange. MC (main character) is curious. An announcement is made. There’s been a body found on the school premises. It was another student. He thinks about it in the shower that night. That’s when we describe the mark on his shoulder. He feels kind of sick. It feels kind of sore. --An investigation is opened. The student was murdered. It resembles a murder from XX years ago. The murder of MC’s mother, but he doesn't remember. --MC starts having flashback of memories from his youth. He questions his foster parents about it. They don’t provide answers. MC tries to find out information about his father. He’s successful in finding his father, except the father declines to meet with him. This causes some self-confidence issues with the boy. He doesn’t understand why his father doesn’t want to see him. “Why did he give me away? Does he hate me so much?” --Part one ends with the father eating his dinner at home. Someone breaks into the house. The father says, “So I’m next, am I?”

  2. The Third 15k --The police visit the MC. His father is dead. They investigate but MC has an alibi. His foster parents confirm it. --When going through his father’s boxes at his father’s house he discovers an article about his mother being killed in a similar manner. Some of the memories come back. He remembers seeing her die. He would have been so young. There was someone else there. That night he has a dream the he killed his mother. --MC confront his foster parents about it. Asking if they knew about any of it. They deny everything. They say that they never really knew his parents. MC believes them and goes about his normal life. --He returns back to his father’s apartment with his girlfriend. He finds a box with pictures of his parents with his foster parents. There’s a branding tool. It matches the mark on his shoulder. He freaks out and lashes out at his girlfriend. --He loses sight of who he is and he starts acting strange. She gets scared. Something happening like a split personality. He loses consciousness and everything fades into the next part.

  3. The First 10k --This part is a flashback to when MC was younger. He remembers his family. He remembers his foster parents being with them. He remembers everyone wearing cloaks. He remembers the brand. He remembers watching himself kill his mother. He remembers himself.

  4. The Fourth 15k --MC wakes up in the present. There’s blood. He can’t find his girlfriend. He tries to call her. The phone rings in the closet. He opens it, but she’s not there. He goes outside. His car is gone. --He takes his father's car and goes to her house. She’s not there. No one is there. He goes back home. His girlfriend is there with his foster parents. --We have another sacrifice for you; they say. They explain that another entity takes over when MC loses track of himself or his self-confidence lowers. --His girlfriend screams for him to remember who he is. --He tries to resist. --Who is the fourth? Does he kill his girlfriend? Does he kill his foster parents? Does he kill himself? I’ll find out when I write the story.

As you can see, I’ve somehow managed to create a story here. None of this was planned ahead of time. All I did was connect the dots I plotted in the Conceptual Draft. Pretty simple. I went into a little more detail than necessary for this step, but that’ll make the next step easier.


That’s all I’ve got for part three. Next time, we’ll discuss the Flat Draft. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading!

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