The Accidental First Draft

Do you remember the list of writing goals I made for 2021? Nowhere on that list did it say write the first draft of a whole new, non-Nanowrimo book. Yet I finished one yesterday.

I was in the middle of planning Book 14 (which, because I sneaked the third instalment of the Beginner's Guide series in, is now Book 15*) when Tessa's story started niggling at me. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I like to plan my books a lot. I'm an uber-plotter. The book I'm going to start writing for Nanowrimo, for example, has already been planned out, chapter by chapter, so that I'm ready to go on 1st November. I didn't have a plan for Tessa's story. I had a first line, that kept repeating itself over and over in my head, so even though I was busy planning Book 15, I wrote it down. And I added a bit more. And then a bit more.

By the time I'd finished planning Book 15, I had one and a half chapters of Tessa's story, written in tiny instalments. I still didn't have a plan for this book, but I decided to carry on, to see where Tessa took me.

She took me to almost 90,000 words. I somehow wrote a whole book, with a beginning, middle and an end, without a plan, without really meaning to. It's a rough first draft, but there's a story there. There are characters I've got to know over the summer, who I've grown to love, and it's a bit strange not to be discovering what happens next in Tessa's life this morning. But I know she's happy, and that brings me a lot of joy.

I'll be putting Tessa's story aside for now: I have a list of goals for 2021 that I'm still working on. But she'll be going on my list of goals for 2022 and I'm looking forward to returning to her world.

*To make matters even more confusing, Book 15, which I'll be working on during Nano, has been usurped by Tessa's story, so is now
Book 16?

Planning Book 15

 

I know Books 12-14 haven't been published yet, but I'm now planning Book 15. This is quite a few book projects to be juggling, but Book 14 - Beginner's Guide Book 3 - is away to be edited and I'll be writing Book 15 as part of Nanowrimo2021 so want to use this little window to plot.

Book 15 is a follow-up of Book 12. I finished the book and was really sad to be leaving the characters behind, but I realised there was potential for more. I'm so happy to be back in Cleo's world, and back in Clifton-on-Sea (which is also the setting of The Little Bed & Breakfast by the Sea and The Single Mums' Picnic Club).

I've already updated the character sheets I created before writing the first book in the series, and I've created a few more for some new characters I'm going to meet. Getting to know my characters before I start to write is important to me, even if it's just a few lines that I'll add to as the book progresses. I'll definitely know my characters more by the end of the first draft, but I like to know a bit about them at the beginning.

The Five-Point Pitch

I've also started to update my Pinterest boards for the book, where I've been pinning articles and images to help with characterisation and the storyline, so now it's time to move onto the next stage of my planning: the five point pitch (I wrote a blog post about the five point pitch method I use here). I'll then expand the short pitch into a bullet point plot and finally create a three-act structure for the novel.