Coaching and Editing Discovery Drafts

Discovery drafts are typically the first draft of a novel that an author uses to explore the story they’re writing, whether the story has been prompted by a situation, a setting, a character, or a theme.

The discovery draft typically includes stops and starts, directions the story could take but doesn’t, characters that fade in and out, either an overly produced setting or a nonexistent one. It’s not a draft that’s ready for a developmental edit, which is typically done on a near-final draft of a novel that the author has revised several times and feels is in good shape.

With a discovery draft, the author typically doesn’t feel that way at all. They’ve got a lot of ideas that are bouncing around in the story and know they’ve got a sprawling mass or they’ve ground to a halt and have cut to the chase and wrapped the story up in a way they know is unsatisfactory.

They don’t want someone to point out where the characterization is inconsistent or how they could make the dialogue sparkle more. They know the characterization is inconsistent and the dialogue wooden. What they’re looking for is someone who can help them see, out of this welter of possibility, what the heart of the story is and where it might lead.

Whether the author has written an everything-but-the-kitchen sink draft or a skeleton draft that’s all bones and no flesh, you can help them, through coaching or editing, figure out where the most promising possibilities are in their story.