DATE & TIME | October 15th, 2022 – Networking at 12:00 pm for those on ZOOM. Business meeting at 12:30 pm, Speaker at 1:30 pm or later–after the business meeting concludes.
LOCATION | Meeting will be Hybrid: Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC | Jillian David: FastDrafting 101
FastDrafting 101
Our Program
Join Jillian David as she presents a workshop on fast drafting.
What is fastdrafting?
Basically, it’s writing the first draft of the book without stopping (editing) and just getting the ideas and words down on paper. Some websites shoot for getting a book done in one, two, or four weeks with this method. I think it must also depend on the length of the book.
Who benefits from fastdrafting?
At the risk of being blunt, people who aren’t full-time writers will benefit. Maybe even some folks who are full-time writers. Fastdrafting is a great time-management tool when writing time is sparse/sacred. I understand that all the articles and advice say: “Make time to write every day.”
Well, okay. But when the day job can go 60-80 hours/week and the hours are unpredictable (I’m a family doc who admits patients to the hospital and delivers babies), then an hour/day of writing is frankly unrealistic.
Enter fastdrafting. I did a modified version of this in October 2015 when I wrote the first 50% of my novella over ten hours in an airport and finished the novella over the next two weekends. (35K words when all said and done final — not initial — draft) But it wasn’t a true fastdraft.
I wanted to try it on a regular book-length book. (Book-length for me is final product 50-70K. Again results may vary depending target lengths.)
Who also benefits from fastdrafting?
People who can produce an outline beforehand and make decisions to deviate on the fly from the outline while mid-manuscript.
Also, writers who are okay with an imperfect, incompletely researched first draft. For example, I’ve left out place names or even certain character names, rather than stop and look them up to find just the perfect name. It can be added later!
What are the rules?
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing set in stone, but here’s what I needed to pull this off:
- Fully fleshed out character interview (10 pages for each character done ahead of time) and a solid outline, preferably revised a few times before starting.
- A set amount of protected time. (For me – all day Friday, 7-12 on Saturday and late that night, pieces of Sunday and also late that night, and all day Monday.)
- Verbal commitment from hubby who understood that I needed those protected times and a promise from me to take him out for dinner for his birthday Saturday night.
- Permission to wear comfy clothes or whatever outfit was most conducive to writing lots.
- Permission to sit wherever I could write lots
Attending Our Hybrid Meeting
Presentation is free for members and all judges. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.
If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.
Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”
About Our Speaker
Award-winning author Jillian David lives near the end of the Earth with her nut of a husband and her bossy cats. To escape the sometimes-stressful world of the rural physician, she edits while on call and writes books in her free time. She enjoys taking realistic settings and adding a twist of “what if.” Running or hiking on local trails often promotes plot development as well.
Her book credits include a paranormal romance series, Hell to Pay, which involves characters selling their souls to Satan and then having a devil of a steamy time getting out of the contracts. Her second series, Hell’s Valley, is a paranormal western. Basically it involves frigid Wyoming nights, a rising evil force in the valley, and hot psychic ranchers. She’s currently working on a romantic suspense series of virally enhanced super soldiers, a Chicago mafia suspense, and a little story with a working tagline of “The Zodiac Killer meets The Love Boat.”
Visit Jillian at her blog