Writing How-to: Week 2 - Getting Drafted

Welcome to week two of this five week series. This week is all about drafting, the beginning process for creating your story. You can visit the previous week by clicking here.

Let me start off by saying that with your first draft of any story, chapter, or essay, you should not expect it to be Mozart. Nobody writes perfection on their first try, but that doesn't mean your draft can't lead to perfection. Drafts are the stepping stone to reach greatness, and every good writer understands how important that stepping stone is.

When you write a draft, you shouldn't care about the grammar, or spelling issues. Just write your idea in full, trying to make as much dialog or explanations as you can. A big thing in drafting is that you want to write as much exposition as possible. Have the characters or the world be described and explained in great detail. Since this is just the draft, you shouldn't fret over if you don't like how something is written.

Of course, if you do feel you wrote something you don't like, you are free to go back and edit it right there on the spot. I've done that plenty of times, and you shouldn't feel shame for taking the time to do it. Writing is not a race.

Let's start off by taking a prewritten idea I've done through the steps provided from last weeks post.

Here's my idea:

the mane six discover this and everyone freaks out, celestia is the only one to know that grass is edible, she thinks they are all idiots, the end

Do you see how short and uninformative it is? It's just a basic idea with no real description. It contains a plot, an emotion, and specific characters, but that's it. So let's turn it into something wonderful.

I'm going to write a draft that's about three paragraphs and contain some dialog, all without leaving the blog post.

The door burst open with a shattering kaboom. The walls shook, and Celestia's cup rattled, spilling the tea she had just poured. The princess looked to see who had disturbed her afternoon break, surprised by the fact it happened to be her number one student. As she began to spoke to greet the young alicorn, Twilight rushed upon her, jumping onto the table. Her face trembled and shook, a blank stare coating the mares eyes, and her cheeks were puffed wide.

"T-Twilight?" Celestia said.

As the words were uttered, Twilight spit out the contents of her mouth onto the table. Green grass bits spread across the wooden surface, mixing with the saliva of her mouth to create a flow of streaking plants. Celestia looked down, noticing that some of the grass had gotten into her tea. Her face filled with shock, disgusted by the overflow.

"Grass is edible!" Twilight exclaimed.

"O-Of course it is, Twilight. Did you not know that?" Celestia questioned.

Twilight stared at her teacher, surprised by the fact her teacher had already known this. "No. Nopony in Ponyville knew grass was edible. I don't think anypony has ever eaten grass," she replied.

Celestia then got up from the table, turning away from her student. She quietly left the room, perturbed by this revelation. The idea that no one knew grass was edible astounded her. After her teacher had left, Twilight looked back down at the saliva covered grass. She quickly licked it up, chewing the blades happily.

Grammatical issues, heavy exposition and explanation, and a basic understanding of the situation. Nothing is rewritten to sound better or worse than it truly is. This is my style of writing before it gets revised, edited, and proofread. Next week, I will continue with this first draft, and you will see what happens after the first revision.

Click here for Week 3

~TheTimeSword