By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The transition from first to second draft on a structural basis is going really well. Now, the issue is going to be that of my native, innate writing. But as I’m fleshing out the outline for the second draft I’m feeling pretty good. I also have a much better sense of the characters now — they’re not just moods that change for expediency sake.
I have really changed some structural issues with the first draft that were pretty obvious and I just didn’t see them because I was so focused on just finishing something, anything, that could be called a “first draft.”
Interestingly, seeing Avatar — The Way of Water gave me a lot of inspiration about some elements of character development that I hadn’t really thought about. After sitting through that three hour, self-indulgent movie I came away with a slew of improvements for the novel on a number of levels. This happens to me whenever I consume media rather than produce it — but it’s very, very difficult for me to not be obsessed with producing content.
But I am still on track to wrap up the fleshed out outline for the second draft by no later than the end of the year (hopefully.) Then I can turn around and start writing the second draft, using the new, improve fleshed out outline as a guide that should really speed things up a great deal.
