Third Time’s the Charm
When writing a story, one has many aspects to consider. However, the most important aspect is the bones. Most writers recognize this, and tend to read their first draft and think to themselves, “Yeah, that’s the story!” Then they send it out for publication and wonder why their story hasn’t been picked up. Well, while it is wonderful to have the bones of a story, it is another matter altogether to tell a story. The following will inform the reader on how to properly write a first, second, and third draft.
When writing a first draft you want to focus on the basic structure of the story, or as I referred to it previously, the bones of the story. This is the solid beginning, middle and end. It could come in many forms from a simple cause and effect format of (a) happens, then (b) happens, then (c) happens, to a timeline, or even just a bullet-point outline. The important bit is to know where the story starts and where it ends. If the story is inside, it will come out, and filling in the middle should not be a bother, it will come naturally. However, this is not a genuine story as of yet. While, your audience may understand the gist of your story, all they are really receiving are the spark notes. This is where a second draft comes in handy.
A second draft can come in many forms as well. It could be an annotated version of your first draft, or even an entire rewrite with some parts added and some parts removed, all of this will come when reviewing your first draft. The trick is to WRITE IT ALL DOWN! If something sounds wrong, make it sound right. If something doesn’t fit, get rid of it, or find a way to make it fit. Sometimes you will realize that the story has a much better flow if you removed a whole section entirely. The point is to find places to add prose, and dialogue and scenes to the story. It is not well enough to say, “This happened, then this happened, then that led to this happening.” That is just the basics. The audience wants to relate to characters, become a part of a world that is different than their own. The audience wants an escape and that is what you will give them in your third draft.
The third draft of your story is where the real craft of writing is presented. One must find the way to tell their story in a way that an audience can not only relate to, but also be entertained by. This is where one would refer to their second draft and find a way to tell the story almost second handedly. By the third draft the writer should and will most likely have a beginning, middle, and end, prose, dialogue, characters and character development, and maybe even a theme, or moral to the story. (Don’t worry, if you don’t have a moral, lesson, or hidden meaning in your story, your audience will find one for you.) It is always okay to write a story for the sake of writing a story. Also, the more drafts, the better. However, by the third draft one should have filled in the blanks enough to where an editor can take over and the final product can be decided from there. Hopefully, this blog was insightful and helpful to budding writers hoping to be published, and there are many other helpful resources out there for refining one’s own literature. Drafting a piece id a very important aspect of completely a story and after a few drafts that fact will become incredibly apparent. Good luck to all the aspiring writers out there and keep your pen to the paper.