I’m not sure where I first heard of it, but creating a “shrunken draft” can be a way to get to know a long draft.
- Ask yourself what specific element of fiction writing would you like the next draft of your narrative to focus on.
- Highlight that specific element of fiction writing in an electronic copy of your rough draft. For example, highlight scenes in green. Points of view, descriptions, different “times,” foreshadowing, even specific words could be highlighted. However, highlighting more than one or two elements at a time can be confusing.
- Reduce the font to the smallest size you’re comfortable with.
- Reduce the margins.
- Find and click on the View Multiple Pages feature of your word processing program. Continue making these and similar adjustments until you can see as much of your document as possible.
- Consider the ratio of highlighted to not-highlighted text. Perhaps contrasting colors reveal long sections of description and few scenes, for example. Or, a narrative you thought shared points of view evenly between two characters does not.
- Do the ratios your shrunken draft reveals please you? Do they fit into your expectations for the draft? What do you need to do to address differences between what you’ve got and what you’d like to have?
Writing Fiction 