Writing is a strange activity. First it demands that you give up control. And later on in the process it demands that you take full control.

I have a tool designed to ensure that you stay in control when you’re working on second drafts. I call it The Fat Draft.

When you write first drafts and brainstorm you need to let go of conscious control of your thoughts. This can be hard enough, but it is key to good writing, and it’s the key to being truly productive. Relinquishing control opens the door to quantity.

But when your ideas are in place, the first draft is written, and your story has taken shape, the pendulum swings in the other direction. It’s time to get back in control.

Working with second drafts means cutting, rewriting, editing, embellishing and molding your first draft according to a plan. But trouble can hit you when you start making changes. Your editing soon becomes complicated and spread throughout your script, and you’re bound to lose track of what you’re doing. This is especially true if you’re collaborating with other writers. The result: you lose control.

And we can’t have that.

Why?

Sometimes it would seem that giving your texts over to an editor or collaborator and let them edit and rewrite is a good idea. And it is. It just needs some ground rules. It needs to be done right, or not at all. You need to retain a feeling of ownership, a feeling that you took part in all the choices that were made.

The best solution is to work on a Fat Draft. This is what it will contain:

  1. The entire unedited first draft
  2. Notes in the margin commenting the text, marking thoughts, ideas and suggestions
  3. Alternative versions of scenes. These come directly after the original scene and are clearly marked «ALTERNATE»
  4. Suggestions for cuts are made in notes in the margin

All through the process you need to keep all your work. Never delete anything.

Let me explain the thoughts behind this technique. Firstly, changes, cuts and rewrites can not be invisible. You have to have a formal way of indicating and keeping track of edits. Secondly, you must always keep the original text close at hand for reference. When you write a second draft, I suggest you work in a «fat» script that contains your entire first draft untouched, as well as suggestions for edits, cuts and rewrites.

Keep it all in place until you are ready to lock your second draft and make the final choices. Then save your Fat Draft for reference and start a new document. In this document you start to delete, change and substitute – one choice at a time. So you’ll have two second draft documents: the Fat Draft, and the second draft, trimmed down, lean, all choices made.

If you’re writing in collaboration, the Fat Draft can be worked on by all writers any time, as long as you don’t change or delete – just add. But the final second draft can only be made when all collaborators are present and can take part in the choices. Which version is best? Should we delete this? Add this? You have to make the choice, mentally go through the process, you can’t hand the choices over to someone else. If you try, your creativity will protest strongly. It will feel wrong, frustrating and depressing. Your creativity knows when it needs to be in control. Trust it.

When work on the Fat Draft is done, all collaborators sit down together and start at the beginning. Go through the entire fat draft from start to finish and make choices. Save it all into a new document, not over the fat draft – you need to keep that.

Take your time. This process will likely take you a few sessions. But it’s well worth doing right. You will gain a tremendous feeling of progress as choices are made and the new draft takes shape. You will have a great feeling of being in control of your creation. And at the end you’ll have a shiny new draft. Take time to celebrate this milestone. Maybe send it to trusted readers for feedback and comments. Maybe gather some actors for a table reading. Or maybe just print it out, put it in an envelope and put it in a drawer for a month – let it incubate until you’re ready to work on a third draft.

An important lesson here is to understand the difference between two writing phases. The wild, untamed first draft, and the more controlled, thoughtful second draft.

At the same time, it’s important not to let your editing smooth out all rough edges and strange ideas in your texts. You need to be able to recognize strange attractors, rough diamonds and the uncanny in your texts, so they don’t become victims to the mathematics of structure. The part of your brain that’s good at editing and cutting, is hopeless when it comes to recognizing the uncanny, the sublime, the true and the genuinely funny. Your editing mind has no sense of irony or humour.

So keep your control under control.