Examples of rough drafts professional#
Examples of rough drafts series#

The next few sentences place the opening in context by presenting background information.

A connection between your topic and your readers’ experiences.

A brief anecdote that illustrates a larger concept.

Many writers like to begin with one of the following catchy openers: The introduction should get readers’ attention, provide background information, and present the writer’s thesis. Even if that means getting under First Mate Jack Marshall’s handsome skin.There are several approaches to writing an introduction, each of which fulfills the same goals. When strange incidents occur aboard the boat, Hattie’s determined to discover the truth. As the adopted daughter of a steamboat captain, her duties range from the entertainment to cook. What she hadn’t planned on was Chase Jones showing up with a mysterious photo from the 1920s.Ī century earlier, Hattie Louis is as untamable as the rivers that raised her.

Examples of rough drafts professional#

When the Belle becomes a finalist in the Timeless Wedding Venue contest, Devyn endeavors to secure the prestigious title with hopes to reclaim some of her professional dreams.

Examples of rough drafts series#

Walk through Doors to the Past via a new series of historical stories of romance and adventure.Īs wedding coordinator for the 100-year-old steamboat The Belle of Louisville, Devyn Asbury takes pride in seeing others’ dreams come true, even though her engagement had sunk like a diamond ring to the bottom of the Ohio River. Two women, a century apart, are bound by a haunting secret aboard a legendary steamboat. To conquer that blinking cursor and fill those blank pages with words. The most important thing is getting that story finished. So even if your fingers aren’t touching the keyboard, your mind is touching the story. Visualize where you want your manuscript to go. So the times when you’re away from the laptop, I encourage you to think about your book. Because life sometimes gets in the way, it’s not always convenient to write every day. I discovered that moving about really helps stir creativity. This led to my hubby making me a treadmill desk so I can write while moving. I get restless when I have to sit in my writing chair for long periods of time. I have several author friends who go for walks or do house chores while dictating their stories. Don’t fuss over sentence structure, word choice, etc. I’ve said this before, but it’s so important to repeat. You’ll be amazed at how many words you can get in and how far your story progresses by doing these little writing jaunts. This is also a great opportunity to include other writer friends because it encourages accountability. When that round is over, reset the timer and do it again. See how many words you can log without stopping. Set a timer for fifteen minutes and just write. Here are a few tips to help you finish that rough draft. Because during this stage of the process, I’m getting the story down in order to have something to work with later. This has helped me through some very tough spots in my rough draft. I know it sounds awful, but the point of it is just to spew those words onto the page and clean up the mess later. What should we do? This is what a group of us authors like to call “vomit” writing. Because all that fact-checking was pulling me away from getting the story down. The best mode of operation would be to insert a little note-I color the font red so it sticks out-and then I return to it when I’m in editing mode. For example, were metal folding chairs around in 1924? They weren’t, but that’s a simple fact I could’ve saved for later. In writing historical romance, it’s way too easy to get caught up in research. Total time waster.Īnother mistake I’ve made was allowing myself to get sidetracked. I spent all that time editing portions which ended up on the cutting floor. But guess what? After I finished the jotting down the entire story, I had to go back and trim scenes that didn’t fit.

Meaning after I wrote a scene, I spent lots of time editing it, perfecting the dialog, refining the descriptions. See, I wanted to build the castle as I went. It’s been said that writing the first draft can be likened to tossing all the sand in the sandbox and then going back and building the castle. And by doing that, I made several key mistakes. I wanted the words I logged to be pretty, for the manuscript to appear clean. For the longest time, I struggled with this reality. It wouldn’t be called a ‘rough’ draft unless the draft is … well … rough. Makes sense, right? But this can’t always be the case-especially when writing a first draft of a novel. As a creative, I am most comfortable (and satisfied!) when what I create actually looks nice.