top of page

#0037 The Nine Draft Process Part Three: The Flat Draft

Writer's picture: AlexanderAlexander
The Nine Draft Process

This is the next entry in The Nine Draft Process, which is the method I’ve successfully used to write four books. I’m hoping that sharing this information will benefit other authors as they search for their own way of converting ideas into books.


In these blog entries I’m using my novel, He’s Going to Kill You (HGTKY), as an example. So I highly recommend reading it first because there will likely be some spoilers in these blog entries.

 

Before we get started, let’s reflect on the previous parts:


  • Part Zero is an introduction to the process. I recommend starting there.

  • Part One is about the Conceptual Draft, which is the first step. Here, we recorded our brainstorming for future use.

  • Part Two is about the Outline Draft. Here, we transformed out Conceptual Draft into an outline, while starting our Book Atlas.

  • Part Three is about the Flat Draft. In this step, we focus on converting our outline into a first draft, while keeping our Book Atlas updated.

 

So how do we take the outline and make it into a draft manuscript? Unfortunately, there’s no secret for this part of the process. You'll want to focus heavily on moving through the story while expanding the points of your outline. This isn’t about hitting chapter word counts. This isn’t about perfecting individual sentences. This isn’t about correct punctuation and spelling. The only thing you need to worry about is taking the points from your outline and expanding them into a narrative.

 

Later we’ll look at some HGTKY examples, but for now, I give you this.

 

The outline says: The boy chased his dog into the woods but gets lost and scared.

 

The Flat Draft goes: Patrick felt the cold emanating from the woods brush against his arms as he chased Rover into the thicket behind his house. A shiver climbed his back, but he would not let that stall him. The old dog was slowing, almost in reach, just ahead. Patrick winces as another chill from cool forest air stings his eyes. The dog suddenly stops, but there’s not enough time for Patrick to follow suit. He turns, but his momentum carries him tumbling to the ground. When he lifts his head from the leaves, Rover is gone. The shadows of the forest have grown darker. He trembles, but not from the cold. All the directions look the same. The way back home is uncertain.

 

You might not believe me, but none of this was premeditated. It took me about five minutes. I just took that bit of outline and expanded it into a story. This is what you want to do with your entire outline. It takes a while, but it can be fun working that imagination muscle.

 

Now for the HGTKY example. From last time, here’s the Outline Draft.



And here’s the Flat Draft for the first chapter.

 


Again, the purpose here is to get the words on the pages to knock out a first draft. It’s nothing fancy. There were changes to this chapter further into my process. You'll want to make a lot of changes later. I’ve heard talk about skipping certain parts of a book that might be difficult to save them for later. I prefer to power through those parts. Even if I’m not completely satisfied with them, I’ve got something to work with in future drafts. I suppose the process will work either way, but the more work you do now, the easier the future will be.

 

While you’re working your way through the Flat Draft, you’ll also want to update the Book Atlas. In the blog post for Part Two of the NDP, I cover what I recommend including in the atlas, such as character names, setting descriptions, and more. For example, I may have made some notes about the Mexican restaurant interior in case the characters return or think about it later.

 

And that’s all I’ve got for part three. I hope it helps, and I’ll see you next time.

留言


留言功能已關閉。
bottom of page