![]() ![]() ![]() Subscribe to The Caffeinated Writer on Substack to get articles on writing and publishing in your inbox twice a month. ![]() Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books of fiction. The final draft is your concession that a book must be interesting, it must be cognizant of an audience, and it must make the reader want to keep turning pages.īy “concession” I do not mean that you have sold your literary soul, only that you have found a way to combine your best vision and your hard-won narrative skills, in order to make a thing of beauty that is both meaningful and entertaining. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing. The first draft is your baby, the thing you can’t let go of. Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft. The associations among the various parts of your narrative will be clearer, and the themes will have been strengthened by the actions and observations of the characters. Whether you pare down or expand upon your first draft, in the end, your final draft should be more focused. I tend to write an overblown first draft and pare it down over time. I usually edit out many thousands of words over the course of my revisions, but some writers create a skeletal first draft and flesh it out later. The final draft may be longer or shorter than the first draft, depending on your inclinations, but it should be more focused. See all the current Final Draft discounts. Upgrades from earlier versions are 79.99. As of this writing, they are offering a 20 discount at 199.99. The purple couch is merely a matter of taste, whereas the broken pot indicates that something has happened-a break-in, maybe, or a more general state of disrepair in the lives of the characters. Final Draft for Windows or Mac is 249.99, a one-time fee. Purple flowered couch may be less meaningful, for example, than the broken pot beneath the window. It should, instead, contain relevant details that add meaning. The final draft should not contain every detail you find interesting or clever, every detail that came to you during your many inspired and challenging hours of writing. The first draft is likely to have more abstractions, while the final draft should be brimming with significant detail. The final draft contains everything you needed to say-those things that are essential to the story. The first draft contains everything you wanted to say. No one writes a perfect story, essay, or novel the first time around. ![]()
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