You've Outlined Your Book. So Why Are You Stuck?
You've outlined your book, but when you sit down to write, you're stuck, or the pages feel stiff and don't sound like you. In this video I explain why a plan can stall you, and the step between designing your book and drafting it: the flow draft.
Hit play or read the post below:
I'm Dr. Gwyn Erwin, and welcome back to my channel, Healing for Your Life.
Today, we're talking about how "You've Outlined Your Book, So Why Are You Stuck?"
You know, you think you know, what your book is about. You've even outlined it, but yet when you sit down to actually write it, you're stuck.
You might write a paragraph, rewrite it, fix it, delete it, rewrite it again, and an hour later you're still on page one. Why? Is the writing stiff, lifeless? Is the writing not coming from your unique writer's voice?
Why does that keep happening?
In this post, I'll describe to you the first draft to write after your design.
The First Draft To Write After Your Design
I've been a professional writer since I was 14, a book doctor, editor, and writing coach for decades, and a psychoanalyst in private practice for more than 30 years. I've walked hundreds of writers from a design to a finished product through a process I created, design to drafting to a publishable manuscript.
An outline lists what happens in order. A design, on the other hand, tells you what your book is truly about, its main theme, its subthemes, how everything connects, your characters, your main characters, your love interests, your catalyst characters, your helper characters.
But your design, not the outline, is only the beginning. I want to talk about what comes right after it.
Most writers go from their outline straight into trying to write the completed book. Chapter one, proper, every sentence right, every note and every piece of research worked in.
That's asking one draft to do everything. No wonder it stalls.
The first draft of your design in my process has one job and only one: to get as much material onto the page as you can, sitting by sitting, no notes, no research, no outline, what I call your flow draft.
How does a flow writing draft work?
To begin, I want you to set aside a block of time, two to three hours if you can, where you won't be interrupted. I know those blocks are hard to come by. I raised four children, earned two doctorates, and practice full time. So believe me, I know.
But carve out that sacred space. Start with your core idea. One word or one phrase for what your book is about. Then off the top of your head, write everything you can think of. No notes, no research, no previous writing, just you and your ideas.
Now, when you do a flow draft, you are following your mind's dictation. You are following free associations. You are not thinking about what to write in a flow draft. That's the point. You're flow writing. No critiques, no editing, no second-guessing.
You can type this on your computer, of course, but you might try writing it by hand because handwriting uses your brain completely differently, and your ideas will associate and come more deeply that way.
You won't finish this flow draft in one sitting, obviously, if you're, you know, trying to get where you want to go with it. When you come back, don't reread it, don't edit it, just pick up where you left off in another block of two to three hours.
When you're finished with a specific block, here's a tip: Stop in the middle of a sentence or the middle of a paragraph so that when you return, you'll know exactly where you want to pick up, and it's much easier to get going again.
Keep flow drafting session after session until you have maybe 30 to 40 pages, and you'll be amazed, and you can say, "There is the essence of my book. I know where my book begins, I know where it goes, and I know what it's about."
Things to consider with your flow writing draft
This flow draft will not be polished. It shouldn't be. It may feel very different from the way you usually write, and that's the point.
What flow drafting gives you is something every writer needs, the ground under your feet and the felt sense that you can write this book. The words are in you, the ideas are in you, and you will hear something else on those pages, your own personal, unique writer's voice.
The flow draft is just the first of many. Each one has its own purpose, and each one builds on the previous.
Happy writing. Bye for now.
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