Category: Writing Tips

One of the ways to improve your writing is to step back and grade it.

During my initial read-through of a completed novel, I make remarks on how each chapter felt. Sometimes, these are long word-vomit texts that I will never reread. But there are some I really should, and that’s why I started grading my chapters like I’m still in school.

MAKING THE GRADE:

I use the A,B,C, D, F scale and in my outline, I place that grade next to every chapter. It gives me a quick visual reference of how I actually felt about the story I’ve written.

You may prefer words (excellent, rewrite, terrible, embarrassing), or use colors or numbers. But for the sake of this post, I’ll stick to the American grading system since it’s so ingrained in my way of thinking.

To further grade the work, I use the traditional 4-point grading scale to come up with the overall average. I’ve had drafts I really liked average a C, and others that I wasn’t as moved by average a B. But the goal is to have as close to an A average before publishing. Sure, a B chapter here or there isn’t going to ruin a book for most readers, but you should also consider which chapters are scoring low.

ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR GRADES:

Your best bet is to have Grade A chapters bookend your novel. These are the chapters that get your reader to invest in your story, and the chapters that give them their final impression. I like to focus on those first before working on the middle chapters. But sometimes it’s easier to tackle what is least stressful. Do what works best for you.

Think about what caused the poor grade.

Identifying the problem is important to fixing it, but by using the grading method you can at least narrow down where that problem is occurring.

ADVANCING THE GRADE:

Once you have narrowed down the problematic chapters, look for ways to breakdown what in the chapter went wrong. You could grade by paragraphs or look into things like: pacing, clarity, word choice, as well as the beginning and the end. You can grade these aspects, to come up with an average for your chapter, and continue to do so until you get the chapter where you feel comfortable.

GRADING ON A CURVE:

Not all chapters are created equal . . . I mean their purpose. Sometimes you want a chapter to be a B on purpose so as to surprise your reader with the next chapter. Remember to grade your chapters based on your goal. Did you slow things down on purpose? How does it fit between the two chapters it’s saddled between? What does it set up? What did it pay off?

Trying to have all A-level chapters isn’t trying to play your amps at 10. It is about creating a consistent flow where each chapter complements the story.

*This doesn’t have to be used for only novel-length work; consider scenes in a short story as well.

One of the best ways to get to know your characters is to spend time with them. Usually, it takes a bit of the story before the characters take hold of their own actions and responses, but if I do my prep work beforehand, I can have that character driving the plot from page one on.

If you want an easy/fun exercise, write your character’s best day.

Asking a child what their favorite part of the day is always very telling. It could be as simple as: PIZZA! But then think about your day, what was the best part: the moment you got in and kicked off your shoes, or when you finally got to crawl into bed?

This can help understand their voice, interests, and relationships. It’s not something that needs to end up in your story, but it is a great way to let them come alive. If you try to expand it briefly, you’ll get a broader sense of how they handle problems or value the people, places, and things around them. Once a character is realized in our minds, it’s easier to write confidently what they would do, and the more vivid that realization is, the less likely you’ll find your character acting out of character on your next draft.

Feeling like going deeper?

What are they like on their worst day?

Sometimes, most times, and often times, we want to be writing. There are a few tricks I’ve tried, such as changing the writing instrument, or going for a walk. But another is picking up an old story–even if you’ve edited it a dozen times, the process of looking over your older work can tip that block off your shoulders and get you writing again.

Plus, editing is a part of the writing process, and if you’re like me, you put off editing as much as possible (it’s always nicer to have a shiny new text file than to try and polish an old one). Getting to work, even though editing uses a different part of my brain, is still training and connecting whatever synapses trigged the creativity needed to tell a new story.

I’m not condoning having a computer program do your work. But AI is still a tool many of us have at our disposal in text-to-speech–which has been around for a while. Once upon a time I used a very robotic voice to read back my stories to me.

It was painful, but it pointed out where word choice and sentence structure failed.

Thankfully, advances in AI means we now have access to more soothing tones.

We all speak in our own mannerisms, and that’s often what we put on paper, but what doesn’t translate is the inflection and pacing. In order to test your text, put it through a text-to-speech program. Listen and read along, make a notation every time something sounds weird. Those are the places you need to correct.

This is my personal approach to drafts. No author is the same, and not every story is approached the same for each author. I have stories I plan for months, and novels I’ve written out of the blue based on a one sentence of an idea.

That said, no matter how the story came about, its existence and the finessing required prior to publishing stays the same for me.

DRAFT ONE – the purpose is COMPLETION.

I write the first draft with one goal, get to the finish line. In past WRITING TIPS, I’ve mentioned how I’ll use placeholders for things I need to research more or am just having trouble finding the right word. These are just things I do to make sure I complete the first draft. Because, as anyone that’s written a first draft can tell you, there will be plenty to fix, so don’t stress over it on your first pass.

DRAFT TWO – the purpose is COHERENCE.

I usually do not dive into a second draft for a week or two. I like to celebrate the first draft and get some distance on what I thought I wrote and what I actually wrote. On Draft Two, I am focused on cleaning it up so someone else can read it. This includes grammar and spelling checks (it won’t be the last). Not only does the story have to be shareable at this point, but it also has to be consistent. I take notes on this pass as I approve the chapters hoping that in my race to the finish line I didn’t leave a question unanswered or set up the wrong path only to go down another one.

DRAFT THREE – the purpose is CORRECTED

I usually share my completed second drafts with a test reader. Some provide detailed corrections or comments. Other’s give an overall evaluation of what works and what doesn’t. When I sit down for the 3rd, I want it to be my last draft–it won’t be–but I still approach it with an effort to perfect it. this will go out to a second reader, and the goal is to make sure whatever problems discovered by the first won’t be hindering the second reader from seeing the story vs. the errors.

From here on, there will be more drafts as I continue to repeat the 3rd draft until it is ready for publication.