I am almost ready to re-start writing a novel I haven’t touched for several years. But before I do, I wanted to try out the quick first draft method that many authors have praised. I decided to try out the technique with a short story, so I’m writing the backstory of a character in that older novel. 

Many authors have praised the quick, messy first draft. Now I see the advantage of having a complete sketch. My first novel was stalled and eventually put aside because I was editing as I went, which shortly led to no more new writing. For my second novel, I steered clear of that well-defined cliff and instead wrote a scene and then left myself a note about what was to come next at the end of each scene. I wrote the whole first draft only knowing what was coming in the next scene, not plotting out the entire scheme. Now that I’m almost ready to re-start writing the original novel, I wanted to try out the more developed approach of the quick, messy (complete), first draft, but with a short story.

The Write Practice has a great post about writing a short story that starts with this: first write the gist of the complete story, like the scenes from a dream that you might tell a friend. I wrote the sketch of each scene (so steps 1 and 4 if you are following along with their plan). I’ve skipped the other steps for now, because I found another, very useful detour. I do plan to return to their outline.

The other tool is Debra Dixon’s GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. The book is from 1996 and includes many [classic] movie references. The examples might be dated but the point is not. She has a simple formula for ensuring your (our?) book or story has a tight plot and believable characters. It comes down to knowing the goals, motivation, and conflict for each character and seeing how those elements interact for each character (i.e. ensuring that those elements do interact with each other). So, the GMC for one character interacting with the GMC for another character is what creates the plot. 

Dixon recommends that writers make a chart for each character that outlines their Goals, Motivation, and Conflicts; both external and internal. Compare all of the charts for each character and make sure that they overlap. The action, or plot, will reveal itself by looking at the relationship between all of the character’s GMC. 

I wrote the messy 7,000+ word first draft for my short story quickly using the get-the-story-down-on-paper as fast as possible approach. I couldn’t do it in one sitting but I did get a sketch down in maybe a week. I separated it into scenes (each one a document in Scrivener) and filled in XX for the names I hadn’t figured out yet and any other details that I wanted to fill in later. 

Now I am using Dixon’s formula to learn more about my characters and to ferret out the real plot. Why are the characters blindly following their leader into a suicide mission? Is she worth following? What are each of their Goals, Motivations, and Conflicts? (Implied: Are they believable? If not, make them believable.)

I expect answering these questions for each character (and ensuring there is overlap) will add emotion to the second draft. Understanding the GMC for each character should be the depth that turns the run-on sentence into a short story with heart. Let’s hope a third and fourth draft will turn it into a story with prose worth reading.