Recipe for First Draft: ¼ cup structure, ¾ cup
imagination
By Sheila Williams, Author of Girls Most Likely
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein
I’ll tell you something that you already know: writing is work.
It is work that requires structure and rules: subjects, verbs,
semi-colons, question marks, diagrammed sentences, outline plots,
character dossiers, synopses and query letters. Writing has tools:
Jane Austen may have penned Pride and Prejudice with a quill and
ink well; I have the option of using a manual typewriter or a
laptop with wi-fi access. Note taking is no longer limited to
the back of receipts (or the palm of a hand) or cocktail napkins
— it’s the age of PDAs. Nor is a writer dependent on her or his
personal resources (or memory) for research or plot development:
software can do it for you and you can Google it! If your story
doesn’t feel right or appears to be missing something, drop it
into SuperDuperFictionWriterPlot Organizer XP and your problem
is solved. Voila! A great novel is born.
Or is it?
Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something missing from the efficiencies,
structural rules and regs, grids, outlines and carved-in-stone
thou shalts. Maybe it isn’t chic or modern, but what happened
to creativity? Gadgets and technological improvements are tools
but not the only tools. At some point in the writing process (perhaps
at the beginning?!) the story will need the cerebral equivalent
of elbow grease: creative thinking. Writers spin stories and their
spinning wheel is uncensored thought. Stories need outlines for
clarity but their genesis is in the imagination.
The first draft is the first step and should have no boundaries.
It should be as deep as the Pacific, long as the circumference
of Jupiter, as well-seasoned as bouillabaisse. No limits — throw
everything into the pot, let your pen or keyboard take you to
wonderful places — and don’t worry about spelling, punctuation,
grammar or even plausibility. Just put the idea onto paper before
its creative flash goes out — before you forget.
Writers have different opinions on first drafts but they all
agree that they are necessary and never perfect. Nora Roberts
calls hers the “vomit draft”; Stephen King recommends writing
straight through from prologue to epilogue without revision. Anne
Lamott advises that all first drafts are poopy (I’m paraphrasing
due to recent puppy house-training experience). The first draft
is your opportunity to spread your writer’s wings and soar.
Now is the time to dream, wonder and experiment. Don‘t take any
plot ideas or characters at face value or fence them in. If your
Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall, do as British mystery writer
P.D. James did — ask questions. Did the old egg really fall off
the wall? Or was he pushed? Maybe the Round One was despondent
over an impending meeting with the King’s Men (I’ve heard that
they were feuding over bridge crossing rights held by a union
of uncooperative trolls). Or maybe he’d had a falling out (pun
intended) with his girlfriend, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe.
Was her shoe a Manolo or a Birkenstock? The story goes in different
directions depending on where she resides. Can you see where I’m
going with this?
Rely on your imagination first — it is the leader of your “A” team,
then pull in the rules, software and outlines later to refine and refresh the
story. The thread that you’ve spun is the beginning.
The garment that you make is the finished poem, short story or
novel.
Without creativity, all the rules, note cards or plot software
in the known world won’t help your story. Imagination illuminates
the possibilities — it opens the Pandora’s Box and lets the devils
and delights dance together.
As for me, I’m curious about Little Bo Peep. (Her real name is
Brenda Jenkins; I don’t know what’s up with the “Bo Peep” alias.)
What’s really going on with her and those sheep? You hear the
oddest things. Not only that, but it’s time for a makeover. Petticoats
are so 18th century. And then, there’s the incident with the Three
Little Pigs, something about a brick house . . . but I digress. •
Copyright © 2006 Sheila Williams
About the Author
Sheila Williams is the author of Girls Most Likely (Published
by One World/Ballantine; July 2006; $13.95US/$18.95CAN; 0-345-46476-1)
as well as On the Right Side of a Dream, Dancing on the
Edge of the Roof and The Shade of My Own Tree. Ms. Williams was born in
Columbus, Ohio. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University and is a
graduate of the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.
Sheila and her husband live in northern Kentucky. For more information, please
visit the author's Web site at www.sheilajwilliams.com.
07/13/06
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