So, the first draft has done its job, whether it is finished or not. I rely on my instinct to decide the opportune moment for moving onto the next stage, which is of course, the second draft, and everything else that goes with it.

Where the first draft was an exercise in capturing ideas the second draft is all about refining those ideas and weaving them into a credible tale. Not all of this occurs with me hunched over the keyboard writing prosaic prose, devastating dialogue, awesome action, and avoiding literary traps like alliteration. As I begin work, I will frequently divert my attention to other tasks, such as developing back-stories for all the key characters. The back story makes sense of the character in relation to the plot and their relationship to other characters. How far you want to develop the back-story is up to each individual writer. For me it depends on how important the character is.

At this point it is worth mentioning again the style sheet. Before I even start work on the second draft, I compose a style sheet. There is no set way of doing this; each author uses the method that best suits them. I have found that an Excel spreadsheet works well for me. I begin by listing all of the characters that are going to appear in the story. I include first name, surname, nickname, a basic description, a specific description if there is something particularly noteworthy, having only one leg or a noticeable tattoo for example, age, sex, occupation, and anything else that might be useful. The purpose of the style sheet is to help maintain consistency. I have read books where the appearance of the main character sometimes appears to change simply because the author has forgotten that they had blond hair at the start but and then changed it to dark brown later on. It might seem time consuming but honestly, as the book writing progresses being able to refer back to the style sheet for clarification can actually save you from making some cringe-worthy mistakes!

The other important undertaking is research. When I write the first draft, I tend to make a lot of notes to myself to research various points that occur to me. It can be about anything, a type of gun, a social convention, a religious belief. I do not go out of my way to look these things up when writing the first draft, getting the ideas down is the most important thing. Doing the actual research comes here, at the second draft phase. I include such research in an appropriate page of my style sheet, along with hyperlinks if necessary. The latter can be important if I am referring to a webpage, particularly if the site holds a lot of information that I consider important.

Another necessary page of the style sheet, although by this stage it is probably better to refer to it as a ‘workbook’, is the plot. Again, different writers develop their plots in different ways. I like to set mine out almost as a chronology. I often start with either the date of a key historical event, actual or fictional, and work forward from there. I include dates of birth for important characters. Most importantly, I plan the series of key events that move the story forward. These can involve one or more characters, or even none but still influence the development of the story. I seem to have a good grasp of logic, which is useful when using spreadsheets for their proper purpose. It is important to develop plots and characters in a logical fashion. Of course, the writer should not be too slavish to logic or else the story might appear too strictly fashioned. It is sometimes a good idea to just throw in a wild-card event to upset the cart. It can be anything, the sudden demise of an apparently key character for example, a volcanic eruption, a political scandal, a sneeze, anything that works for the writer. Again, you have to use a little caution. Overuse of this writing technique can also lead to your story becoming seemingly illogical. My rule of thumb is not to do anything for the sake of it.

At this point I find myself working on the second draft, the style sheet, character back-stories, research, and the plot. I can imagine that most people who say, ‘I’m going to write a book one day’ have no idea of all the other work involved alongside sitting down and typing out the actual words of the story.

In my next instalment I will examine how all this extra work contributes to the writing process itself.