Birth of a Book Part Ten: The Writing Stage: Writing the First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

This series has been discussing the early stages of writing a novel. We started with the Stage One: the Idea Stage, beginning with the Inspirational Spark, moving on to Brainstorming the Idea, Clarifying the Idea, and wrapping it up with Testing the idea. Next, we entered Stage Two: Development, which got us looking at ways to create characters, and then further develop those characters. We then shifted to setting and world building, then we focused on figuring out the plot, and wrapped up Stage Two with summarizing the story. Today, we finish the series with Stage Three, writing the first draft.

Since a large chunk of this site is dedicated to the specifics of how to write a first draft, I’m going to step back and and approach this a little differently this time. No matter how much I wish I could list out the exact steps you need to write a killer first draft, no such thing exists. Every writer has their own way of writing, and as comforting as that is, it’s also a bit terrifying—because there’s no one “right way” we can follow.

Birth of a Book Part Nine: The Development Stage: Summarizing the Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

This series has been discussing the early stages of writing a novel. We started with the Stage One: the Idea Stage, beginning with the Inspirational Spark, moving on to Brainstorming the Idea, Clarifying the Idea, and wrapping it up with Testing the idea. Next, we entered Stage Two: Development, which got us looking at ways to create characters, and then further develop those characters. We then shifted to setting and world building, and last week, we focused on figuring out the plot. Today wraps up Stage Two with summarizing the story.

A story summary is a lot like a synopsis without all the pressure. It doesn’t matter what format it takes or how long it is, it’s just all of your thoughts and brainstorming ideas fleshed out on paper.

Birth of a Book Part Eight: The Development Stage: Figuring Out the Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

This series has been discussing the early stages of writing a novel. We started with the Stage One: the Idea Stage, beginning with the Inspirational Spark, moving on to Brainstorming the Idea, Clarifying the Idea, and wrapping it up with Testing the idea. Next, we entered Stage Two: Development, which got us looking at ways to create characters, and then further develop those characters. Last week, we shifted to setting and world building, and today, we’ll focus on figuring out the plot.

This step is going to vary widely, since every writer has their own process. My goal is to show the thought process and general ways to approach this rather than specific structures or templates, as that will change depending on the writer—although I will mention some things to try.

Birth of a Book Part Seven: The Development Stage: Creating the Setting and Building the World

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

This series has been discussing the early stages of writing a novel. We started with the Stage One: the Idea Stage, beginning with the Inspirational Spark, moving on to Brainstorming the Idea, Clarifying the Idea, and wrapping it up with Testing the idea. Next, we moved on to Stage Two: Development, which got us looking at ways to create characters, and then further develop those characters. This week, we shift to setting and world building.

Although setting looks like step three in this series (idea, characters, setting), I often do considerable world building before I development my characters. As a fantasy writer, the story and world are so interconnected I need to know how my world works before I can do any serious story and character work.

Birth of a Book Part Six: The Development Stage: Developing Your Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

Over the last month, We've been going through the early stages of writing a novel. We started with the Idea Stage, turning a spark of inspiration into a solid and tested idea for a story. We explored the Inspirational Spark, then we discussed Brainstorming the Idea, followed by ways to Clarify the Idea, and wrapped it up with how to Test the idea. Last week we started Stage Two: Development, beginning with creating characters. We continue this week with ways to development those often rough characters.

Birth of a Book: Part Five The Development Stage: Creating the Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

Over the last month, We've been going through the early stages of writing a novel. We started with the Idea Stage, turning a spark of inspiration into a solid and tested idea for a story. Today, we start with Stage Two: Development. The first stop is creating characters.

So far in this series, we went through exploring the Inspirational Spark. Then, we discussed Brainstorming the Idea. We then Clarified the Idea, and wrapped it up with ways to Test the Idea.

Birth of a Book Part Four: The Idea Stage: Testing the Idea

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

In this series, I’ve been analyzing the early stages of writing a novel. Part One is the Idea Stage, focusing on my own four-step process of developing an idea enough to turn that idea into an actual novel. First, we went through step one of the process, The Inspirational Spark. Then, we discussed Brainstorming the Idea. Last week, we brainstormed and Clarified the Idea. Today, we’ll wrap it up with ways to test our idea.

Birth of a Book Part Three: The Idea Stage: Clarifying the Idea

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series


In this series, I’ll be analyzing the early stages of writing a novel. Part One is the Idea Stage, focusing on my own four-step process of developing an idea enough to turn that idea into an actual novel. First, we went through step one of the process, The Inspirational Spark. Last week, we discussed step two with Brainstorming the Idea. Today, let’s move on to step three, take what we brainstormed, and clarify the idea.

Birth of a Book Part Two: The Idea Stage: Brainstorming the Idea

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

In this series, I’ll be analyzing the early stages of writing a novel. Part One is the Idea Stage, focusing on my own four-step process of developing an idea enough to turn that idea into an actual novel. Last week, I went through step one of the process, The Inspirational Spark. This week, let’s continue with brainstorming that spark into an idea.

I had four ideas I was considering to work on next. I talked about where the sparks came from, why I wanted to write them, and what my next step to developing them was. They were:

Birth of a Book Part One: The Idea Stage: Turning Inspiration into a Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Part of the Early Stages of a Novel Series

The last time I opened the site up to questions, a reader asked about more information on the early stages of writing a book. I thought it was a great idea, and as I’m currently in this stage, it seemed like a good time to launch this informal series. Since every writer approaches a novel differently, I’m going to borrow an idea from contributor Jami Gold’s last series and discuss my process and the reasons behind it in the hopes that analyzing the process will help others find or clarify their own processes. Hopefully, it’ll also provide some things to consider and some direction if you’re not sure what to do with your ideas.