Structuring a messy first draft

scheherazade said:

For those of you who write first and structure later, what strategies do you use to fix the plot holes and structural problems when you revise your first draft? Cue cards? Diagrams? Plot-fixing machines? Any other techniques?

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Doing a chapter list allows me to see the whole novel at one time in a page or two. Major structural problems are easier to spot this way.

scheherazade said:

For those of you who write first and structure later, what strategies do you use to fix the plot holes and structural problems when you revise your first draft? Cue cards? Diagrams? Plot-fixing machines? Any other techniques?

Click to expand...

Sounds like procrastination techniques to me.

After the first draft, I write a two-page synopsis to identify plot holes etc. Which will then be re-written later as my sales tool. Otherwise I write.

Notes as I write, notes as I reread, notes as I revise. Physical copy for when I'm doing official revision, computer copy if I just need to write something down straightaway.

This is just me - personally I'm a big believer in whatever works

Writing a query, or even a pretend query, is often helpful. I mean, what better way to realise what you're actually writing about then having to squeeze your story into 250 words. Painful, but it helps define what's most important, and what the point of all those chapters is.

Then it's basically figuring out the beginning, middle and end. I imagine it as an introduction, which then turns into a reaction to something by the characters. Then the characters have enough strength to actively go after their goal rather then react to their circumstances. After a certain number of actions, which are either detrailed or blocked off, the characters are left with only one option, which they follow through to the climax.

That's how it works for me anyway. But then again, it could be entirely different for you. As for tools that help, I'm in love with the writing software scrivener

Folk don't really want to know what's involved in structuring a messy first draft, surely?

Most first drafts need some form of editing or revising but if a first draft is genuinely riddled with plot holes and structural problems, no amount of tweaking will fix it. Unless one has the experience to know when plot holes arise and how to re-structure a tale, but that knowledge usually means the problem won't arise in the first place to any worrying degree.

The advice to most folk facing a real mess would be to forget the belated creation of notes and cards, and start again.

If the story starts right and characters react as they should to the unfolding events the story will usually reach its proper conclusion.

Other than that, note-taking via cards or paper or software to rectify a plot hole or whatever is a matter of choice of what works for the individual. I can't think of many things better than pen and paper and a brain.

Are you confusing this with folk who perhaps write scenes out of sequence? Because that is not the same thing as writing a messy unstructured first draft that is full of plot holes.

One is simply a writer's personal choice to write scenes while the iron is hot so to speak and when the mood strikes, whereas the other is usually the result of rushing and/or not having a clue what one is doing.

I'd suggest the Holly Lisle approach. Somewhere on line for free she has a quick version of her workshop.

Here you go:
http://hollylisle.com/one-pass-manuscript-revision-from-first-draft-to-last-in-one-cycle/

Stick it in a drawer until I've acquired sufficient distance from it. Then reread. Then stick it in a trunk for a few years until it starts knocking the lid off. Then read it again.

I don't *recommend* this method btw.

gothicangel said:

Sounds like procrastination techniques to me.

After the first draft, I write a two-page synopsis to identify plot holes etc. Which will then be re-written later as my sales tool. Otherwise I write.

Click to expand...

Confused by the procrastination part. I use organizational methods that help me get the job done.

As to the original poster, I do a few things if I feel structure is lacking in the first draft:

1. Find your main character(s) and outline their character arcs after the fact. Go chapter by chapter.
2. Create a timeline (I use plain ole Excel). Again, I go chapter by chapter and state what day or time. See if I have chunks of super fast pacing followed by weird, slow pacing. Make sure I'm transitioning correctly where there are erratic time jumps.
3. I will redo my character "beat sheets" (that I created before I started). Make sure my motives, and character wants are there in each section.
4. Plot holes will usually come out in individual character arcs (#1 above).

My issues tend to be if I change a character arc in the story. I have to deal with all the "ripples" that come after. I make sure I note the changes and have that up on a sticky note or such during revision.

I also create a loose ends folder where I'll write things to keep in mind as I revise, things I've changed that are both major (plot changes) and minor (appearance/eye color/etc).

The absolute worst for me has been introducing a new character when I've finished the first draft. Oy. Talk about painful integration.

Good luck with it all!

Although I structure first to avoid tons of unnecessary rewriting work, I would go through what you have and look for your major plot points and reversals, and start plotting from there.

Bufty said:

Folk don't really want to know what's involved in structuring a messy first draft, surely?

Most first drafts need some form of editing or revising but if a first draft is genuinely riddled with plot holes and structural problems, no amount of tweaking will fix it. Unless one has the experience to know when plot holes arise and how to re-structure a tale, but that knowledge usually means the problem won't arise in the first place to any worrying degree.

The advice to most folk facing a real mess would be to forget the belated creation of notes and cards, and start again.

If the story starts right and characters react as they should to the unfolding events the story will usually reach its proper conclusion.

Other than that, note-taking via cards or paper or software to rectify a plot hole or whatever is a matter of choice of what works for the individual. I can't think of many things better than pen and paper and a brain.

Are you confusing this with folk who perhaps write scenes out of sequence? Because that is not the same thing as writing a messy unstructured first draft that is full of plot holes.

One is simply a writer's personal choice to write scenes while the iron is hot so to speak and when the mood strikes, whereas the other is usually the result of rushing and/or not having a clue what one is doing.

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A lot of times, a book ends up somewhere very different from where it started, and things that were set up in the beginning lead nowhere because the plot took a sharp turn and headed off in a new direction. That's where plot holes tend to start cropping up, IMO.

@OP:
I actually had this exact experience with my draft I'm revising right now. The book I set out to write was not what ended up on the page. Which is good, because the book I actually wrote was actually much *better* and more insightful than the book in my head. Unfortunately, it also had a lot of holes in it and plot threads that went nowhere.

What I did was download a "stickynote" program onto my computer, and listed every single scene on each individual note. Then I lined these up on my screen in order, and divided them up into "acts" essentially (the three act structure). Doing that, it became very clear that the book was sagging in the middle, so I started brainstorming what needed to happen to get from one place to the next and fix some of the problems. Then I rearranged some things, added some sticky notes, deleted some others, and once I was satisfied with how the thing looked I copied it all into a scene list, which I'm keeping open alongisde my draft so I can reference it as I edit.

Despite having 17 new scenes I need to add to flesh out the story, the revision is going REALLY fast. In a lot of cases, the "scene" only needed to be a few sentences added to what was already there.

You could do this with other structures. you could color-code it to POV or other plot elements. You could do it with paper notecards, too, I just like the on-screen thing.

Mine method is probably not for the fainthearted. I always have very messy first drafts. I can't outline, and the ideas often come in way, way out of order. I literally have had scenes that were in my beginning in the middle, and one that was near the end now in the beginning.

The first thing I do is very fast editing pass over the entire manuscript. I tend to get a lot of a flotsam in the story -- ideas that popped in and didn't go past a page, a subplot that got a paragraph then vanished. I found on my final revision, all that flotsam made it extremely difficult to figure out what was working and what wasn't. It was kind of a clutter to the story. So the fast pass edit's purpose is just to knock that stuff out of the story and make my revision easier.

Then I print the whole story, read it from beginning to end, and identify major or recurrent problems. There are some things I know to ignore, like character problems (those are always story problems and nothing to do with characterization) and missing subplots (those will come in at some point near the end of the final revision). Others I know I have to pay a lot of attention to, like making sure that story starts in the right place. It seems like 80 percent of my time is spent on getting that right. If I don't, it really messes up the rest of the story is some major ways.

Then I put a pattern of structure over the story, essentially establishing places where the turning points should go. Then I shuffle scenes to fit the pattern and fill in anything that's missing.

I did try plot cards (Holly Lisle's method), but I found they really didn't work for me. I found myself focusing on getting the sentence right but it didn't help me make the story work. A hands on approach to the story seems to work better for me.

I had to rewrite my first draft about 12 times to work out all the timeline problems.

Since my WIP is a creative non-fiction (a fictionalized biography), I had to keep reworking whenever I found new data about my character being in a certain place or doing a certain thing around such-and-such a date.

After the 12th rewrite, I was relatively confident, and had prettied up my language along the way too. Right now, I am having a silent movie expert look over everything, and he's found several other plot problems that are mostly timeline issues as well.

I print off multiple copies as I go (recycling of course...), and make notes in the margins about what needs to be re-arranged, the approximate page it needs to be inserted, and other notes to self. I have to do it on paper, then work on my computer to get everything done correctly, or I'll miss something.

Call me a dinosaur, but that's how I work. Plus, when you get old, you forget shit.

Rube Goldberg machine. A helium balloon, a velociraptor claw, a series of didgeridoos, a mouse with a bomb strapped to it, a glass of water, a vial of phosphorus, a sitar, a bonobo in estrus, a compound bow, a mummified ibex, three lightsabers, six vibrating dildos, Gary Busey, crotchless underpants, a bagpipe filled with pregnant mare urine, a flaming trebuchet, and a lot of duct tape.

Seriously...I'm not an expert or anything but I'd say read it, edit it, read it, edit it, read it and edit it until the words you are seeing no longer appear to be English. Then set it aside for a while. Then repeat the first six steps. It might still have issues, but I think you should see some structure and sense after this point to work from.

But if after this you still have glaring plot holes or a damn mess that doesn't seem to have any semblance of rational progression and never will, you might have a more fundamental problem...or you're a hardcore expressionist...but I think those have gone out of favor.

With one first draft of a novel that was giving me headaches, I ended up doing a scene-by-scene outline. I found I could see where there were scenes missing that the story needed. But tbh I've never been happy with that novel, although now enough years have passed that I don't actively hate it any more.

One of my techniques is to just relax. I learned long ago that something happens in my head (subconscious?) when I just remove myself from the chapter or story I am working on. (I tend to edit as I write.) If I'm in a conundrum, I try not to think about it and often the answer will come to me when I'm doing something mediocre and ordinary, like ironing a shirt or filling the dishwasher. (Driving the car is another good one.)

Then I go back and edit/fix/revise (whatever word is appropriate) that chapter or section of the story. Usually when I am done, I am done and I only go back over everything to check spelling and grammar.

But there is a lot to be said for the other method, too: write everything and keep going until you're at the end. (Otherwise, for some writers, they'd never finish anything.)

As I have said, though, on many other threads: whatever works, works. Each writer has to find their own way and figure out what works best for them.

Something interesting I heard once is that for some pantsers, there first draft is like a really really detailed plan in story form.
That's how I treat it, so it's easier for me to move things around and change things so that it's easier for the second draft

Bufty said:

Folk don't really want to know what's involved in structuring a messy first draft, surely?

Most first drafts need some form of editing or revising but if a first draft is genuinely riddled with plot holes and structural problems, no amount of tweaking will fix it. Unless one has the experience to know when plot holes arise and how to re-structure a tale, but that knowledge usually means the problem won't arise in the first place to any worrying degree.

The advice to most folk facing a real mess would be to forget the belated creation of notes and cards, and start again.

If the story starts right and characters react as they should to the unfolding events the story will usually reach its proper conclusion.

Other than that, note-taking via cards or paper or software to rectify a plot hole or whatever is a matter of choice of what works for the individual. I can't think of many things better than pen and paper and a brain.

Are you confusing this with folk who perhaps write scenes out of sequence? Because that is not the same thing as writing a messy unstructured first draft that is full of plot holes.

One is simply a writer's personal choice to write scenes while the iron is hot so to speak and when the mood strikes, whereas the other is usually the result of rushing and/or not having a clue what one is doing.

Click to expand...

We basically have the same opinion here. If you're writing in sequence, meaning step by step, there shouldn't be anything present that's too big to fix. Major things like, halfway through the novel you took a turn that didn't go with not only the story, but the tone of the novel pretty much require a rewrite of either everything that happened before you took the turn or everything after you took the turn. I know. I've done it before. The good thing is I can usually catch it 5k after the turn and go back to change it with relative ease.

Major structural problems in a novel are like major structural problems in a house. They're a pain and take time and money to fix. It may not take any money in a novel, but it sure is a lot of time and pain to fix.