Monday Musing: Drafting

Since handing in the first round of rewrites for Diamonds are Forever, I’ve been drafting a new book (I’m not telling anything about it right now, other than the fact that it’s a YA standalone!) The drafting process is on my mind right now, so I thought I would share my favorite and least favorite parts of writing drafts.

My favorite part of writing is definitely dialogue, and exploring internal thoughts of the main character. I love getting inside the main character’s head and exploring her emotions and thought processes—it reminds me of when I used to write in a diary when I was younger. Dialogue is also so much fun, because communication is how relationships move forward. Drafting would be so much easier for me if all I wrote were the internal thoughts and dialogues for the characters!

My least favorite part is description of interiors, scenery, and what characters look like. Of course, it’s very important to create a visual for the reader, to set the scene, and to give a sense of place. But describing surroundings always takes me so much longer than anything else! Setting the scene needs to be there, but it’s a delicate balance between making it fit in naturally and not overloading on it. In The Secret Diamond Sisters, the main characters were seeing Las Vegas for the first time, so it was natural for them to notice their surroundings and be enchanted by them. It’s much more difficult when writing from the point of view from someone who’s lived in a place forever, because surroundings stop becoming something they stop to think about.