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First Draft in 30 Days | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Wiesner
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $1.14
You Save: $18.85 (94%)
New (49) Used (27) from $1.14
Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 28157
Media: Paperback
Pages: 216
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 1582972966
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3
EAN: 9781582972961
ASIN: 1582972966
Publication Date: March 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Many aspiring and experienced novelists toss out hundreds of pages (and waste valuable time) before they have a workable first draft of a novel. With Karen Wiesner's book, those days are over. In this guide, readers will find: -A systematic method for completing a detailed first draft in just thirty days -Sure-fire methods to reduce time-intensive rewrites and avoid writing detours -Comprehensive, detailed, and interactive worksheets to make the process seem less like work and more like a game Flexible and customizable, this revolutionary system can be modified to fit any writer's approach and style.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Thou Shall Not Spiral! May 19, 2009
Me
A book about writing needs a gimmick to sell. In the case that you are a well published author, your name alone will be enough to sell the book and lends credence to your methods. In the case of "First Draft in 30 Days" Weisner uses a promising, result oriented title to sell her book.
The premise of the book is to avoid spiraling at all costs. Weisner proposes that by having a 60-100 page detailed outline that comprehends the accepted three act structure, one will be able to embark on their first and final draft with very little revision. This method will enable one to organize multiple story ideas, help them manage their writing career, and ultimately double their productivity.
Allow me to explain the method 30 Days proposes. It acknowledges the ramshackle, chaotic brainstorming of early story ideas. Good so far. Get a folder and file cabinet to collect your ideas. Start with a one sentence description of the story. Work this to several paragraphs; don't worry that it is disorganized and missing elements of a good story. Start brainstorming on specifics of character and setting, filling out the provided templates. Create a list of things that need to be researched. Cordon off an entire week to perform this research. During these initial activities, write down any poignant scenes or ideas on the included forms.
30-Days then gives a good discussion of story threads and the three-act structure. It asks you to expand the preliminary story description, character dossiers, and setting descriptions into a list of scenes, being mindful of the various story threads that make for good fiction. Brainstorm on each scene, filling in more details. Armed with the setting, character, and research templates you completed earlier, you can focus on the elements of story without having to worry about idea generation. At the point that you can visualize the whole story, accurately as if it were a movie, you have what she calls a formatted outline. She predicts this outline will be around 100 pages for a 100,000 word novel. Each scene represented by a completed template giving its detailed design.
Weisner asserts that your research should be done before your plotting. That character and setting dossiers need to be complete before plotting. That these activities will spark and support good plotting. Herein lies the problem.
I propose that the opposite will as often be true, that plotting your story will give you ideas about characters, setting, and things to research. That is the fundamental flaw of her method; it does not adequately comprehend the spiraling, chaotic method of idea generation and puts the act of plotting behind the supplemental activities.
If I were writing this book, I would have worked in the opposite direction. Start by stating the objective: A list of scenes that capture the main story and character arcs. Then instruct the writer to record details of character and setting that support their developing plot. Give them a list of questions to help flesh out characters and setting. Describe the three-act story format and explain story threads. Then ask them if their scene outline supports the elements of good fiction (plot and/or character driven) and is compelling enough to want to continue. Yes? Start writing! No? Spiral some more until the ideas work.
There is absolutely nothing that should preclude working on plot, characters, and setting in tandem. The only advantage of prescribing them in this order is to guarantee a finish (if they haven't taken up knitting instead.)
Ultimately, 30-days will appeal to writers with well developed left brains. The irony is that most left-brained individuals will have no problem decomposing the problem space and coming up with a list of design documents to arm themselves with prior to their writing journey. Left brained people are all about plotting. Weisner is preaching to the choir.
Right-brained individuals may have a difficult time getting through the material, most of it reads like a technical manual. It explains a concept, and then gives inline examples of using her templates. 60% Of the book's 200 pages is devoted to empty templates and examples showing their use.
The premise is largely correct. Writers should strive to avoid major changes once writing has begun. But spiraling during the idea generation and plotting phases is unavoidable. (Perhaps expected and welcome.) And while Weisner may feel more comfortable embarking on her writing journey with a 100 page outline, for others, this level of detail will preclude inspiration born from later writing, and may kill the joy of the process.
If you don't need the hand-holding that a "30 day" method provides, I recommend Scott Bell's "Plot & Structure" that describes various techniques for plotting (of which "30 Days" is one -- Bell calls this the "Borg" method of outlining), and that comprehends differences in author temperament. Combine with "Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint" (Kress) and you will gain a much better treatment of characters and emotional arcs.
For those familiar with software engineering methods, Weisner is espousing a "waterfall" model.
Nothing Wrong with a Good Outline February 20, 2009
A. C. Ellis (Denver, CO)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It has been pointed out by other reviewers here that following this book doesn't really give you a first draft, but an outline. Actually, the outline has always been the hardest part for me, so I was pleased to find this book.
I used it to develop the outline for my next mystery/suspense book, and it gave me a great outline I could follow to achieve a strong first draft.
I recommend this book to anyone who has trouble outlining their novel-length work.
A. C. Ellis
author of In Pursuit of the Enemy, Worldmaker, Soldier of 'Tween, and SHADOW RUN: Book I of The Ancients' War
 It worked for me! December 19, 2008
Christine & Ethan Rose (Austin, TX USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I think the title to this book is perfect. It says First Draft in 30 Days, and that's exactly what I had after 30 days... a first draft. Of course the revision process took another year. This is not a short cut for writing a book. It is still a considerable amount of work, but this book gives a step-by-step guide with where to start, how to devolop characters, and how ensure you're hitting all the plot points. Ultimately, you are still the one that has to write it.
Now, I'm a published author of an award-winning book (Rowan of the Wood), and this book helped me get there.
Great! Great! Great! October 8, 2008
WriterInAZ (AZ United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book and 'From first draft to finished novel'. They're not set up to require you to buy both, but they compliment each other very well. I got just as much helpful info from each book, not repeats like I've found from other 'series'.
I can't say enough good things about this book. I can now figure out where my issues are in each MS, prop up the middles and get them cohesive. While I may have been able to eventually get published with out the help of these books, I don't think it would have happened any time soon.
At first glance, her method looks a bit complicated. But after reading the book all the way through, and starting at the beginning, It is rather very simple.
There are some things I use (99%) while I discard the items that don't work for me.
As for typing in the worksheets into Word myself, It took me about a half an hour. I typed them up once(customized to my tastes), as master copies, and now I'll be able to use them for any book I decide to write.
A good organizational tool for the unorganized writer September 24, 2008
J. Shafer (Eugene, Or United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The beauty of this book is that details a method of organization that can help you put your novel in order. If you are like I used to be you would sit down to write, but run into problems because you have so many ideas floating through your head and you don't know where to start, end, or anything else. And what comes out on the page is junk. The meathod in Karen Wiesner's guide will help you to start small--by doing character sketches and location descriptions. Then you move to a broad, general plot. And so on, piece by piece, until you eventually put it all together in a detailed outline. This has increased my organization when it comes to writing and allowed me to ideas on paper with out having to redo them a dozen times before getting it right (only to later discover it wasn't so right after all...) I can get through the early parts of writing a story without spending a lot of time on a scene to discover it doesn't fit in the plot line. This book has been a great benifit to me as a writer.
This book is good as long as you understand what you are actually getting. Despite the title you will not get a completed first draft out of the process described in this book. What you do get is a very detailed outline. This is the reason I gave the book only 4 stars.
This book isn't for everybody, though. If you are already well organized with your writing you probably wont get as much out of this book. If you are like me, however, give this book a try.
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