Drafting

First-Page Speed-dating

First-Page Speed-DatingFirst-page speed-dating; full of nervous anticipation you sit down knowing nothing about the ‘date’ in front of you. Will your ‘date’ prove interesting, engaging, compelling? Will you want to spend more time with them? What attracts you extend the date to page two? …

The Skeleton Draft

The Skeleton DraftNavigating a path from start to finish of a novel can be hard for both plotters and free-writers; enter the Skeleton Draft.

The Skeleton Draft is an idea-dump. Maybe you outlined the novel using a story structure such as the Hero’s Journey or any of the five, seven, seventeen or twenty-four point methods. Or maybe you have a scant clue of your story without a real structure in mind. The Skeleton Draft is a means to dive into the story and explore characters, conflicts and events without getting hung up on prose before you really have the idea worked out.