Amateur To Published: The Fiction Writer's Guide To Publishing

8 - Quick Tips To Finish Your First Draft

It's time to start writing your first draft. Your aimis to flesh out your outline into continuous prose as quickly as possible not to write a perfect book (that willcome later). So here are a few tips to help you do that;

IDEA 1: INCREASE YOUR TYPING SPEED

Your typing speed will affect your productivity. Ifyou're still pecking at the keyboard with one finger one key at time, thenyou'll never be able to write quickly. We're not asking you to be a mastertypist, just aim to get your typing speed to at least sixty words per minute.Of course increasing your tying speed involves lots of practice and testing. Key Hero and Typing Master are tutor sites/software thatwill help you test and up your typing speed. Just thirty minutes of practiceeach day could lead to a significant increase in your typing speed.

IDEA 2: TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

If you'd like a break for your hands or are veryslow on a keyboard, consider moving from typing to voice recording. Thisinvolves using your voice to record your manuscript then converting that audioto text using speech recognition software/sites. The most famous of thesesoftware/sites is Dragon by nuance.com,  but there are otherslike Braina, Speechnotes etc. Of course you'll have someinitial problems as you try to adapt to dictation instead of typing buteventually you'll notice that with continuous practice and training of yoursoftware, you can speak justas fast as you can type (if not faster).

IDEA 3: OUTLINE SCENES

Most people dawdle when writing because they don't know whatto write next. Usually, this is what we call 'Writer's Block'. However, if you already know what you should be writing, then you won't have that block. If you get stuck, consider outlining the scene first before you write it.

Ex. Craig isshocked to discover that Sara is the one who killed Chief Anderson, took the'lost' fingerprints that could have proved that Mathew is Mathew the serialkiller and burnt them up. He feels betrayed because he trusted her. Sara isinterrogated but she refuses to say anything other than confessing that shekilled Anderson. Each of the team members try to get her to implicate Mathew,pleading to her loyalty to the team and her duty to protect citizens as a cop.Their words move her to tears but she still won't confess. Craig gets angry andstorms down to the morgue where Mathew is working like it's just a normal day.Craig attacks him but Tamara and Big stop him from killing him. Mathew swearsto sue for assault then smiles as they exit his morgue.

The above outlined scene shows exactly what will be happening and all the writer has to do is expand it into a real story that has dialogue, description and introspection.

IDEA 4: GET RID OF THAT 'I NEED INSPIRATION' MENTALITY

Once you go pro, you'll quickly realize that inspiration isn't something you wait for, it'ssomething you create. Only hobbyists can afford to wait for lightning to strikeand choirs to come singing at their doorstep. The rest of us have to write whether we feel like it or not. That means sitting down and typing until inspirationshows up. The ideas that follow this one will give your ideas about how to stop depending on inspiration and instead depend on self-discipline and work ethic.

IDEA 5: SET UP A DAILY WORD COUNT

If you want to make sure that you're productive,give yourself a minimum number of words to write every day regardless of yourlocation or circumstance. It can be as low or as high as you want it (just nottoo extreme). If you write just one thousand words a day for instance, youcould have a 60,000 word first draft in two months. Imagine what would happenif you upped that word count even more.