Finding That Goldilocks Feedback Opportunity In Story Dev
When I talk to writers about helping with their books, the first thing I always start with is “What draft are you on?”
The subtext to that question is, “Are you at a stage where developmental feedback will be valuable to you?”
Because there’s a sweet spot where I can add value.
Too early, there’s not enough there to assess. And it’s a waste of money for the writer.
Too late, and making meaningful changes becomes a much harder task than it otherwise might have been.
Now, every writer is different. There’s no wrong process. You might not really be able to define any point in your progress as a specific “draft.” You might have two or five or ten steps you use to get through your project, or it might be one long organic mess, and that’s cool. It’s really less about the steps and more about the progress you’ve made in defining and refining your story.
But chances are you move through a progression that looks something like this.
DRAFT 0
Explore the concept. You woke up with a crazy thought and it won’t go away. Is it dumb? Is it brilliant? Is there any “there” there? This is where you’re brainstorming, researching, taking notes, bullet-listing plot point ideas. There’s no writing yet, there’s ideating (to crib from the tech world lol.)
PUKE DRAFT
Birth the first narrative. So the story seems to have legs. This is where you get the roughest prose on the page without regard for stylistics, spelling, punctuation, etc. Open your veins and let the narrative pour out unfiltered. Create too many characters. Write crappy dialogue. Spew out every scene idea that occurs to you. This isn’t something you’ll share with anyone. These are just your raw story materials.
SECOND DRAFT
Structure. Assuming the puke draft is holding any small amount of water and is worth pursuing, it’s time to make it coherent. See if it can stand up to your version of structural development. Trim those extra subplots. Delete unnecessary scenes. Remove or conflate characters. Add causality to plot flow. Get the plot points in the right order, fix fundamental sentence structure, assign dialogue tags.
When you’re done, does it make sense? Is it readable? Does the plot work? Do the characters sound unique and take action with motivation? When you feel these items are solid, when it’s “feeling like a real story,” your second draft is done.
THIRD DRAFT
Developmental editing. This is where a developmental edit can help with a high-level review and feedback round. Can the editor recognize your themes? Are they following your plot or are there holes? Are you hitting the tropes you were aiming for? Can the reader keep track of and empathize with your characters? Do they find your unique voice resonant and consistent? Do you have stylistic habits that distract?
Take that feedback and refine the story with these observations in mind. Choose the changes that you feel are valid… this is your chance to fix things you agree need fixing, to clarify your intentions where they might be failing to communicate, and fix clunky plot elements you clearly thought were working but might not be hitting as hard as they should.
And finish up this third draft.
(No, not every observation or suggestion needs to be integrated… check out this article about evaluating and implementing feedback on your writing. It’s about screenplays, but applies to novels too.)
FOURTH DRAFT
Line edits. Hopefully now, after your developmental pass, your third draft story structure is solid. Your themes are in place, your plot is tight, your characters are compelling with unique voices. Now it’s time to stylistically perfect that third draft by really refining every line. Make sure your creative voice sings. Play with sentence structure, phrasing, vocabulary, POV. Improve clarity and readability. This can be your task, or you can use a line editor to help. I’ve done this a number of time for novels based on existing materials, both late drafts and completed screenplays.
When you feel like you’ve honed all your prose, you’ve completed your fourth draft.
FIFTH AND FINAL DRAFT
Copy edits. Before you go to formatting and press publish, it’s time for a copy editor to go over your finished fourth draft with a fine tooth comb for spelling, punctuation, any style-guide issues (US or UK English?), and so on. Once that’s done, you’ve got a completed fifth draft. This is what you send to the formatter to get ready for self-publication, or to your publisher if you’re working with one.
Your Mileage May Vary
I want to reiterate, you might not follow this kind of modular “draft” model. But whatever your personal writing process, whether your a plotter or a pantser, whether you edit as you go or start with a raw stream of consciousness and refine later, you will eventually arrive at a point where a second set of eyes and some critical evaluation can help.
If you’d like to chat about working together, just click below and let’s set up a 20-minute discovery call.
“Chip graciously provided me with detailed feedback on my ambitious science fiction space opera that is in its early stages. I have a long road ahead and the draft is extremely rough, but he not only took the time to read through all 70k+ words and make notes along the way, he also included a summary page with loads of comments and questions which is exactly what I was looking for. He is a genuine professional. You’ll be in good hands if you choose him to help with your project.”
JM, author (work in progress)
“[Chip] understood the short assignment and provided useful and balanced insight and analysis that will help me to improve the piece. I very much appreciate his professionalism and communication and would recommend him to anyone.”
RK, author (work in progress)
“When I needed an editor, I could think of none other than Chip Street … Besides the benefit of his skills, I figured Chip would keep me honest. Thank you, Chip.”
Michael Stebbins, Author, Backward Entrepreneur
“Chip was instrumental in guiding the outline of our book and setting its structure to be sensible and easy to follow. Would gladly work with him again.”
KD, Founder, Entrepreneur
“I recently consulted with Chip on my psychological thriller screenplay and it was by far the best move I could’ve ever made. What I received far exceeded my expectations.”
Jeff Warrick, Screenwriter, Producer, IgniteProductions
“I’m so grateful for the feedback … I don’t think it would have gotten to a better place on its own, regardless of how hard I tried. I spent a full year doing a re-write based on your notes, which I hope resulted in a better story. Thank you!”
Jason Nicholson, Normal Network Film & Animation
Chip Street - Writey Guy 