TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………………………. 1

Two Types of Writers……………………………….. 4

In Defence of Macro Planning..…………………….. 6

Step 1: God’s View…….……………………………. 9

Step 2: Side-Glances..……….……………………….12

Step 3: Nine Narrations.……………………………..13

Step 4: Under The Microscope.…………..…………16

Step 5: To The Typewriter…………………………..18

Step 6: The First Edit………………………………..19

About The Author………………………………….. 21

 Introduction
A killer first draft, the holy grail - who doesn't want it?

Conventional wisdom says that you can't write a good first draft,
talk less a killer. As Hemingway famously said,
"The first draft of anything is shit."

No doubt, he makes a valid point, but like with everything, just

because it sounds true doesn't mean it holds true all the time.

I don't believe the first draft has to be shit, and I'll show you the 6-
step process I use to create killer first drafts.

Before going on, it makes sense to come to terms with what a

'Killer First Draft' is.

First, what are the ways in which a first draft, or rather, any draft,
can be good or bad?

Narratively - most serious (flaw inherent in the story told)

Structurally - easily fixable (flaw inherent in how the story is told/
stitched together…it's usually fixed by reordering scenes, chapters,
or sequence of scenes)
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Linguistically - pet peeve (flaw in the language)

Having spent months working on your story, which problem would

you rather have?

No one in their right minds would choose the first problem, but
I've come across many writers whose process leads them to that
very problem.

A story is a narrative, and if your first draft fails narratively, then

it's shit.

Structural problems aren't so bad because they imply that the

underlying story is already working, and the only problems are in
how it's stitched together.

Linguistic flaws don't ruin a good story, but the best written prose
won't save a terrible story.
Hence, a killer first draft is a draft that has minimal narrative,
structural, and linguistic problems.

The 6-step process is carefully constructed to help you tell the best
version (or close to it) of your story the first time around by
limiting all such problems.
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Before we get to the steps in detail, we must take a detour to aid
our future understanding of the process and why it works.

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 Two Types of
Writers
In my writing journey, I've found that there seems to be two main
types of writers.

There are those who get an idea and run to the typewriter or
computer, or in my case, an iPad. British novelist Zadie Smith calls
them 'Micro Managers', of which she is one.

The second set are those who refrain from writing fade in or
prologue until they have plotted the story to the end. Zadie Smith
calls them Macro Planners.

The difference between both sets of writers is primarily in their

method.

One writer doesn't care about laying foundations, relying on the

power of their subconscious to deliver a decent story the first time
around, while the other ensures the story is alright before writing.

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If you identify as a micro manager and are unwilling to try
something new, or are content with your method and the quality
of first drafts produced, you may stop reading now.

Why may you want to become a Macro Planner if you're naturally

a Micromanager?

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 In Defence of
Macro Planning
I have a few friends who want to write but have found it difficult to
get on with it.
It's not that they don't write, but rather, they get an idea, get
excited by it and let it push them to begin the process. They enter
fade in/prologue/chapter one.

At first everything is going great, two chapters are churned out per
day.

But then one year later, they are on their fourth story, with the first
three yet to be completed.

Why?

There are many reasons why, but a lack of desire to write is not
one of them. Somewhere along the line, they lost interest in the
story, or just couldn't figure out what would happen next.
To be clear, there are bestselling authors who identify as Micro
Managers - Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, to name a few.

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The problem with this method should be clear to see for anyone
who has a basic understanding of how creation works.

You don't start building a house the moment you conceive of the
thought.

You don't build a car when the idea hits you.

You don't go on a vacation the moment you imagine it.

In all these things, planning is required.

Given the number of decisions required to be made in a story

(characters, plot, and theme), it seems a bit insane to me to start
writing without doing some groundwork.

When you engage yourself in writing an unknown/unplotted/

unplanned story, you give yourself way too much work to do while
writing, work you could have done prior.

All of this is not to say that the 6-step process eradicates the
importance of the subconscious and spontaneous creation.

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On the contrary, it magnifies its ability because it splits the creation
process between the two sides of your mind, with each doing what
they do best.

To understand how, let's begin the process, finally.

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 Step 1 -
God’s View
primary agent: subconscious - conscious
primary concern: creating/imagining the story

This is where it all begins; the moment the idea strikes. In this
stage, you only want to gather ideas and take notes.

The primary advantage of this is that you can be in this stage for
several stories at the same time, for as long as possible.

Naturally, the longer you let the ideas ferment in your

subconscious, the deeper it'll blend with your experiences, and
before long, you'll have a lot of notes for what happens in your
story.

For better visualization, consider a blank canvass. The moment the

idea strikes, the first brush of paint can be seen. As the weeks,
months, or years pass, and with each new idea and note taken
down, more paint drifts into the canvass. Before long, the makings
of a Van Gogh can be seen.

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The primary agent active in this process is the subconscious, and
the subconscious is someone who should never be rushed.

You know you're ready to move on when you know, in general,

what happens from beginning to end.

No deep details are required, though you'll have to stop yourself

from taking down a lot of cool details that will spring at you.

That's the beauty of this process, the subconscious is given the

time to deliver a million eureka moments, each time fixing the
story and making it better, or seeing clearer what was only vague
months ago.

Another way to know if you're done is to use the following terms

as anchor:

Inciting Incident - what sets your protagonist on the path to the big event?
Big event - the story's hook; Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts, Avengers
assemble,
Mid-act climax - what major event happens in the middle?
Crisis - the worst thing that could happen to the protagonist?
Resolution - how does it resolve?

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If you can see all of these events, then you're most likely ready to
proceed.

If you need more markers to check, then I recommend you read

Blake Snyder's Save The Cat, it has more than ten.

In this view you also get to decide or find what your theme is. At
first, it won't be clear, but with time, as characters and plot
develop, the theme will develop with them.

This article I wrote on antagonism will help you in this creation

phase.

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 Step 2 -
Side-Glances
primary agent: conscious - subconscious
primary concern: structuring the story

Once a general view of your story's main events have been

illuminated, you can then create/see it in more detail by zooming
in to each individual scene that combines in telling the whole story.
It is best carried out in a card outline. You get a pack of post-its,
scribble scenes/chapter titles on them, and summarize what
happens in the scantiest terms.

A Music Trick
The last time I carried this out, for my novel, I let my imagination be
supported by the Hans Zimmer's film score for Christopher Nolan's The Dark
Knight.
I chose this album because it fit the mood of the story I was working on, an
angry sort of story skirting on the edge of anarchy and destruction.
It got me into the headspace to conjure emotionally relevant images and story
turns.
You could try it for your process. Just find a score that fits the mood of what
you're making. It aided my thinking in movie terms. Remember, here you're
lookin for specific images and story turns.

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 Step 3 -
Nine Narrations
primary agent: conscious - subconscious
primary concern: refining the story

Having glanced your story from beginning to end in scanty detail,

the next thing to do is to narrate. There's two main reasons you
want to do this.

The first is to gauge how good a story you have, and how well you
have told it. You do this by getting feedback.
It's much easier to ask someone for ten minutes of their time to
narrate a story to them (your friends certainly won't mind, and
some strangers too) than it is to ask them to read a 120-page script
or a 60,000-word novel.

It's also wise from a business standpoint. Why invest resources

(time) in a commodity that hasn't been market tested yet? It's like
releasing a film without doing a test-screening to gauge audience
reaction.

The second reason, and most important, is that this helps you
make the story better. When you begin narrating your story to

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your first audience, you'll find that with each narration, you carry
out nifty surgeries on the story, spotting defects and fixing them on
the spot, mid-narration.

I was curious why this tended to happen and so I thought about it.

It made sense. When you're actively telling the story, you're in a

creation state, though you're creating from a pre-existing blueprint.

In this state, your subconscious and conscious minds are working

in tandem as you create new words to convey familiar information.

Then you come across a part in the story that doesn't really make
sense and there's a disconnect.
Because of the momentum thus built up, and because the show
must go on (seeing as you're in front of an audience), necessity
inspires innovation and the story is reconnected in an ingenious
way that makes it flow better.

When it happens, it's like magic, it fills you with joy.

How many time do you have to do this?

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I reckon nine is the magic number, because 'Ten Narrations' didn't
have such a nice ring to it.

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 Step 4 -
Under The
Microscope
primary agent: conscious - subconscious
primary concern: telling the story

Traditionally, it's called the treatment stage. Here you take your
side-glanced story that's been improved by the nine narrations
under the microscope to see and jot down the information in more
details.

You'll write what happens, to who it happens, how it happens, and

why it happens.
It's almost like writing the story but greatly differs because it
doesn't demand much in relation to prose styling nor dialogue.

The aim is just to get the details of the story down. The
characters, their motivations, their desires, their conflicts, the
setting.

Again, no dialogue is required, so you don't have to bother about

what anyone said. Just look at them and take detailed notes.

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It's usually around a page or two per scene, or half a page if
laziness has a greater hold on you.
I've found you can cheat here, but know that you're probably
increasing the work you're going to do after.

Remember, the idea is to do the groundwork, to lay the

foundations. If you cheat (write less) here, be ready to pay (stress
more) later.

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 Step 5 -
To The
Typewriter
primary agent: conscious - subconscious
primary concern: writing the story

If you didn't cheat under the microscope, then this will not be as
hard.

This is the moment you finally get to let your characters talk. And
also the time I begin to dread the rigorous demands of prose
styling.

Having gone through the last four steps, you'll be able to breeze
through chapters in days, depending on your writing style and how
much you get in the way of the flow.

The flow is simply a state where it feels like you're writing without
having to think too much about it - you could consider it as writing
without stressing.

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 Step 6 -
The First Edit
primary agent: conscious
primary concern: refining the story told

Basically what it says. You edit what you have into a first draft of
your story. This is particularly useful for finding and fixing
linguistic errors.

It's called the first edit because no story is set after this stage. That
is the reality of the job.
That said, all future edits will be dedicated to refinement (making
the prose or script better) as opposed to reconstruction, or in some
cases, construction.

If you're writing a script, this is where you fine-tune your dialogue

and descriptions.
Ideally, you should start the first edit sometime after finishing from
the typewriter (a week or two). The reason is to give you the
chance to view the story with fresh eyes, hence the distance of
time.

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With all this work done, you should have a first draft that works
narratively, structurally, and linguistically - a killer first draft.

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 About The Author

Gilbert Bassey is a writer and story consultant who is dedicated to telling

great stories and helping other writers do the same.

You can follow his writings on medium and subscribe to his storycraft
newsletter to get more insightful articles on the craft of storytelling.

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