6 Phases to a Finished Draft

Photo: Nicolas Veithen

You want to write a book, but you feel like you don’t know where to start. Or you’re somewhere along the way to finishing your draft, but you’re not sure what’s next.

I’ve been there. On my journey over the last several years to publish my novel, I’ve learned a lot. This knowledge has helped me to craft fantastical worlds and led to getting multiple short stories published!

Someone recently asked me, how do I do it?

Allow me to share with you my six-phase approach that I use for all my stories, starting from zero words to a polished draft. I’ll use my published short story Shadows of the Mountain as an example, but this process works on any length, from flash fiction to epic Fantasy and anything in between.

Phase 1 — Ideation

You want to write a book, but what about?

This phase, I call the ‘ideation’ stage, the process of coming up with ideas for what I’d like to write about. The core of this stage is to allow your creative mind free reign to explore ideas without any negativity creeping in (like doubt, fear, or thinking an idea isn’t good).

For me, I find that this stage works best when not at a desk, but out in the world or experiencing life. I think about what kinds of things I want to write about. If I don’t know what to write about, I just let ideas pop in and out of my head.

I don’t really focus too much on what I’m going to write, about marketability, or if people will like it, I just let the ideas bubble up to the surface.

After a while of doing that, I have a good feeling of which one I’m most excited about, which to me sounds the most interesting. Maybe it’s a challenge to myself like a subject I haven’t tried or perhaps the format is new to me, and it’s something to explore and try.

Whatever the idea is, there’s usually some element of fun involved or an emotional response to it.

And on the topic of marketability, something I’ve realized: If I feel something about the idea, it’s more likely the reader will too.

I also find it’s much easier to get into a project if I’m excited about it for some reason or another.

Phase 2 — Core Concept

What is the core essence of this idea? What is the hook?

Once I pick my idea from the ideation phase, I continue this process of mental exploration. Again, I’m not usually sitting at a desk.

I personally find that when I come to a blank page at my desk, but I don’t have a clear sense of what I’m going to write, I get stuck. Instead, I exist, and let the ideas come to the surface in terms of what I’d like to do specifically for this idea.

I talk in more detail in terms of my process here, but in essence I pick something low-stim (doing the laundry or dishes), keep a notepad handy, and let the ideas bubble up.

I think about what kind of story I want to tell along the vibes of the initial inspiration. There is usually something that piqued my interest, like a theme or a vibe or some kind of core nugget.

For example with my short story, Shadows of the Mountain, The core concept was: a creepy dark entity that terrifies the main character as a reflection of his needing to overcome fear and save his family.

Once I had the core hook, I started thinking:

How is it going to happen?
What’s going to take place?
Who’s at risk?

I floated around different ideas of what I could write about, and as I pondered these questions I jotted down ideas as they came to me.

I explored parallels in my own life. For example, I explored having a child growing up and not understanding the parent is trying to help them. Each time I followed a thought, I had a sense of which ideas I liked and so I continued to add them in a rough collection of notes in my notepad or journal.

Phase 3 — Shaping the Story

What is the shape of the story? What takes place?

Now with my core concept and vibes, I started to organize these thoughts into a more coherent story and plot. I kept going until I had a rough idea of how I wanted the thing played out.

I didn’t have all the details of how things would occur, but I roughly knew

There is the main character and his son.
The son gets kidnapped.
He goes to find his son.
He rescues him.
He struggles to return to the village.

That was pretty much it, with a few specific moments that I had in mind, like certain imagery or emotions I wanted to convey or explore.

Once I had that, I let it sit for a little bit. This is something I have to remind myself often, is that the creative process takes time, and honestly I’m glad for it. By allowing myself time to let the idea sit for a moment, the story continued to solidify and in so doing other ideas popped in my head.

Bonus: Phase 3.5 – Planning

At this point, you could go ahead and jump into writing, but I like to add one more step in here that has helped me (especially in longer pieces) to set milestones for myself.

I look ahead at my social/work/life calendar and roughly think about when I’m going to write and how long I’m going to write.

I usually have a sense of how long it’s going to be based on:

How many story or plot points there are
How long or detailed the outline is
How many parts there are to the story arc

In the case of Shadows of the Mountain, I knew it was a short story that I would likely submit to an anthology, so I roughly knew the upper end of the word count (somewhere between 5-10k words) and I used that as a marker.

Using my tool, ChronoPath Compass, I knew roughly how many sessions it would take and set goals for myself in terms of weekly word count goals.

Phase 4 — Messy First Draft

Now with all the previous items in place:

The inspiration (idea)
Core idea (hook)
Rough outline (shape)

This is where the draft begins!

I used my process of getting into the flow of writing and over the course of several days, I sat down at my computer and let all the pent up ideas flow out of me. I blocked off an hour or so each time, and using my outline and core idea as a guide, I explored the world I had been imagining up to this point.

I didn’t worry about how ‘good’ it was, I didn’t slow down to fix words I got stuck on, I just kept writing.

In this case I also used music to help me stay inspired in the theme of this short story. For this short story I used the Dark Souls OST, a Dark fantasy playlist, and the Doom 2016 soundtrack.

Channeling the emotion of the inspiration and using the music as wind to my sail, the story flew out of me.

Phase 5 – Review and Improve

I wrote it, now what?

After reaching what felt like a natural end to my story, I let it sit again. In this case, because it was a short story and it only took me a few days, I let the story rest for a day or two. When writing longer pieces, like my novel in progress, I tend to let it rest for a week or more to give my mind time to relax.

After that period of time, I go through my normal stages of reviewing and improving. I’ll talk about this in more detail in a separate post, because it merits a deeper dive, but in essence I would go through a series of passes where I

Read through looking for a specific kind of improvement, making changes to improve it on this front (flow, spelling, plot, voice, etc)
Once done, I then send it off to alpha or beta readers to give me outside perspective opinions and a second set of eyes
Then when I get it back from them, I consider their feedback making the necessary changes and I repeat the cycle and look for something else

This process can be repeated as many times as you’d like. While there is always something else we could tweak, like the saying art is never truly ‘done’, you will have a sense that it is ready for the final stage.

Phase 6 – Polish and Publish

It feels ready to share, what’s left?

After I feel like I’m not catching any issues on a read through and the beta reader feedback is returning mostly positive, I continue to this final stage: Polish and Publish.

The goal of this stage is to make things look presentable and ready for whatever format you’re aiming for.

This stage too could use it’s own deep dive in terms of what to do, but it will depend widely on where you’re looking to publish and what kind of piece you’ve written.

In my case with Shadows of the Mountain, I had the submission guideline to use as a guide and formatted my story accordingly. (which did get accepted to be published by the way!)

In Review

While the details and length of each story I’ve written has varied, I tend to follow these phases pretty closely. Not out of a sense of needing to check boxes, but it’s a process I have found that has helped me to go from zero words on a page to a publish-ready story.

How long these phases take will also vary greatly. For example, with Shadows of the Mountain, it was about a two-week process from start to finish. (thanks to the beta readers who gave prompt feedback to help me finish in time for a submission deadline!)

On the other hand, it’s been almost three years since the first words came to my page for my Fantasy novel in progress (with likely several months yet to go). But as I’ve continued to write more and explore these fantastical worlds, I am finding peace in the journey and the understanding that creativity takes time.

Your Story

Where are you in your writing journey?

Early on, I didn’t know where to start. As I progressed, I didn’t know what came next. Through trial and error, I’ve found that seeing these phases helps me find where I’m at and to see there is a way forward to a finished book.

Maybe you’re still in the early days of ideation, or you’re stuck somewhere along the way to a finished draft. Wherever you are, there is a way forward.

Let me know where you’re at in the comments.

And if you’d like a supportive community to share your creative goals with, join the Creative Wizard community for free here.

Most importantly keep writing,
and stay creative.

Creative Writing Wizard