Customer Reviews

First Draft in 30 Days

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"First Draft In 30 Days: A Novel Writer's System for Building a Complete and Cohesive Manuscript" is what it's called but this is not the result the book actually provides. If you follow this method, after 30 consecutive days of work, you will NOT have a first draft or a manuscript at all. What you'll have is a complete OUTLINE of - to quote the book - 60 to 100 pages!

Days 1-6: Preliminary outlines and sketches
Days 7-13: Research
Days 14-15: Story evolution (ideas for beginning, middle, end)
Days 16-24: Formatted outline
Days 25-28: Evaluating the strength of theoutline
Days 29-30: Revising outline - and on Day 30, you're to put this outline "on a shelf for at least two weeks to several months."

The worksheets in the appendix are similar to those in "The Marshall Plan" (an author also of the crime/suspense/thriller genres) and, although this author says you can apply it to any genre, the book leans heavily towards suspense fiction. (Romance is an "optional" plot thread, for example, and her worksheets have headings like "character/suspect".)

For mystery, suspense, and thriller fiction where plots are intricate and have tons of crucial details, this method may be a useful way to track all that. For writers who use outlines as a guideline only and/or who stray from it if the work evolves in a new direction, this is a lot of "writing before the writing" that may not prove to be all that productive in the long run.

Don't let Karen Wiesner's romance background scare you away. This woman is a professional, and she's got some sensible suggestions.

According to her bio, she's written over twenty books, including such diverse genres as romance, mystery/police procedural, suspense, thriller, paranormal, and action/ adventure. Perhaps even more impressive is her planning acumen. Wiesner is always two, three novels ahead of the game, thanks to her formatted outline.

Many writers either can't or don't want to outline their novels in advance (See Tony Hillerman, for instance). Wiesner couldn't either at first until she developed the formatted outline. Wiesner refers to the formatted outline as the first draft of the book. When she revises, she revises the outline rather than suffer through countless drafts of the manuscript.

This woman is a real left-brainer. She plans virtually everything, including time to let the manuscript marinate. The appendices include character, setting, plot, and research outlines as well as a place to write potential interview questions for possible experts and your characters. Her story evolution worksheet is almost as helpful as the formatted outline.

And-oh,yes-I almost forgot Chapter eight. It's for us poor shleps who already have a completed manuscript with all kinds of holes. She shows us how to use her system to salvage the mess.

As one who has endured twenty-three drafts on his first effort, Wiesner's FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS is a godsend.

Whoever the book titlers are at Writer's Digest, they should be ashamed of themselves. A 30-day outline is a far cry from a 30-day draft. The first draft--the "rough" draft of your book--must be the most painstakingly thought out and executed of all the drafts, be there two, three, five, or six more to follow. It's here, right in the beginning, that you develop your story flow, your pulse, your synthesis of surroundings with characthers and their actions / reactions within the disciplined framework of your plot. I'm sure most successful novelists would tell you that. In no way can a 30-day outline be labeled a 30-day draft. These are two separately, pronouncedly different and distinct writing phases. ##### I have always been a firm believer in outlines, and have always developed one for every one of my books (including my novel, Six Hours Past Thursday). In no way can you, as a writer, feel that you are somehow going to be led by some spontaneous, invisible hand through the jungle of story creation, be it fiction or non-ficion. To me, outlines form the basics of essentialism for a writer. ##### To flip the coin to the other side--objective analysis of Karen Wiesner's First Draft In 30 Days from the standpoint of content--it is first rate. There is nothing arbitrary or random about her call for a tightly-disciplined approach to book creation. Dispersing learned counsel in rapid-fire bursts, she lays out a good sequence for outlining your book. Preliminary thoughts, research, story evolution, formatted outline, evaluate strength, a revistation, and, importantly, putting it on a shelf for a quiet period of rest and final reflection before proceeding into the first draft. A good pecking order. ##### My lone objection is to the misleading title. Hence, the 3-star rating.

You need to decide whether you write from the seat-of-your-pants or whether you are a planner. This book is for planners. Buy No Plot, No Problem if you are the other sort.

Okay, you're a planner. Should you buy this book. Well, it doesn't cost much and it has a decent system. Other systems to look at would be the Marshall Plan, the Weekend Novelist or The Novelist's Bootcamp.

I would recommend How to Write a Damn Good Mystery to either sort.

What's wrong this book? The most important parts of this book are the worksheets. They are printed in the book. You must copy them and write on the copies in long hand or take the time to reproduce them all using your word processor.

I myself would rather spend my time writing. In this day in age there is not reason why I should not be able to download the worksheets in electronic format. I would even settle for paying more for them; however, the publisher gives a lame excuse that doesn't cut it--basically, they just don't want to do it.

Here's the excuse from the author's web site:

Q. I just got my hands on the book a couple of days ago, Karen, and I'm in love. What I do wish...that I could order a CD with all the forms instead of having to copy or remake them. I know they all existed as forms on your computer...and I know Writer's Digest does CDs with its Writer's Market. Any possibilities there? Also, it occurred to me that you might want to do online workshops...and you could include the forms in the workshop if you don't have copyright or permission conflicts.

A. Since my background is with small press and electronic publishers, one of the first questions I asked Writer's Digest Books was about offering 1) an inexpensive workbook that included only the worksheets, so they could be re-used easily for each new project, and 2) printable order forms on my website. The first suggestion wasn't possible--this isn't something WDB does normally. As for the second option, I was told that since the worksheets are one of the most valuable aspects of the book--the heart of it, it's not really feasible to put more than three of the worksheets on my website. I chose the most frequently used ones or the most intensive, so those are the ones available on the website now. Please be aware that it's illegal to distribute or put these worksheets on any website. You may make copies for your own use, or download them to you computer for individual use.

Definition of First Draft = extended outline of your novel

1) I love lists and templates and this has 'em readily available

2) Chapters aren't too long or filled with unnecessary examples. She states her points, gives an example then tells you what page the template is on so you can fill in your own. Efficient and not a waste of my time

3) Like any novel writing program, if you stick with it you'll get it done. So if you go this route, do it from beginning to end and supplment the sections that you feel need extra help. For instance, in handling the character sub-plots I would combine her section with the Marshall Plan of Novel Writing's discussion and format for sub-plots

A very good book. Another plan that makes it look doable if one simply commits to writing.

This is a great book if you're the type of writer who is organized and needs to have structure. The book is very detailed and thorough. Series writers might enjoy this. I've used a plot outline before that was about 14 pages, this method builds a 60-paged or over outline! You'd include every detail so that you can sit down and do the creative work on your novel. I'd highly recommend this for the writer who needs lots and lots of structure to do the creative work. I never realized that I was missing so much until I began to use this method.

After purchasing the book, I returned it three days later. My expectation was that this would be something different than the usual making out "grocery list" charts, which are often structured and difficult to work with. I truly was hoping for a more novel slant on the system of putting a book together. While the book contains good information, the only thing that sets it apart from dozens of other writing books out there is the title, which as it turns out, is just a carrot.

There are basically two types of fiction writers. There are the ones that thoroughly outline the book in advance (Dan Brown did a 200 page outline of the Da Vinci Code before he wrote the book) and those that essentially make up the story as they go along (Stephen King and Dean Koontz are examples).

If you're like me, outlining is a must. I'm a very structure-oriented person, and I like to plan things out in advance. So for me, FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS is a very helpful book, because it is essentially a manual on how to do a highly detailed outline of a novel. This is probably the best handbook on novel outlining that I have ever read.

The problem with outlining, however, is that it is difficult to reduce every work of fiction to the same type of outline. Karen Wiesner is a romantic suspense author, so her outline template works mainly for novels in that genre. Her approach will therefore not work if you're writing something different (a literary novel, a comedic novel, etc.)

So this book is great if (1) you like outlining and (2) plan on writing a book in the suspense/thriller genre. If you don't fit these categories, then this book will probably be of little practical use.

If you've ever had trouble plotting a book, then First Draft in 30 Days will definitely give you the boost you need. The day by day instructions lead you through every step of the process, from character sketches on Day 1 to creating a formatted outline on the last two days.

I've never done much plotting before. I'd just get a vague idea in my head and sit down to write. No wonder most of my stories fizzled out somewhere in the middle. Karen Wiesner's book has shown me the way. I've been following her plan and I'm amazed at how smoothly everything's going. I'm working on a story I've started before, but never finished because I'd become lost in the middle. I didn't know my characters or my setting well enough. I had no subplots so the one plot had to carry the entire story.

This time I know the people much better. I can see my settings. And things are already happening that I hadn't planned, like a heart attack I hadn't known about before. If plotting's always been difficult, or if you thought you didn't need to plot, give Karen's book a try. It's easier than you thought, and gives you a formatted outline that takes you by the hand and leads you from chapter to chapter as you write your story.

I tried reading Karen S. Wiesner's "First Draft in 30 Days" one chapter at a time. I implemented her schedule and worksheets for a story I've been working on sporadically for nearly 10 years now (to no avail). I thought I could do some of the basic steps, leaving out others, knowing she'd have a little different information for those of us with a book in progress (Chapter 8). I stopped the worksheets just before the "capsules" stage because I was beyond needing THAT type of structural help. Being one of those "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of writers, I don't like the straight-jacket-ness of structural writing, and outlines? Never liked them in school, definitely don't care for them now. That goes for character sketches, plot summaries, timelines, you name it--all of which are part and parcel of Wiesner's approach. I much prefer a more organic approach to my storytelling.

Let me tell you, Wiesner's method--when followed through on--helped me pinpoint not only what I've been trying to write all this time, but has been invaluable in helping me clarify my tripping-up points. NOW I know why this story has taken as long as it has to write and why its direction and storyline kept changing. That alone is worth the purchase price of this book.

I finished reading "First Draft in 30 Days" a couple of weeks ago and haven't written this review till now because the spare time I can come up with for writing has been spent deconstructing what I already have written down, filling in capsules for the large quantity of missing parts, and checking for flow and pace--I've been on a roll! :)

In addition, using Wiesner's method, I've got 2 new stories that've been nothing more than whispers in the corner of my mind now "percolating" and being exorcised onto paper; I have every intention of using her method to write--from start to finish--both of these stories. I have no doubt that I will continue writing in at least a closely-related version of this outline system for whatever future ideas come into play as well.

Kudos to Karen Wiesner!