#this long

Drafts can benefit from a good, organized outline - or an Outline that stacks out events, scenes, and the rough dialogue content. If you're still working on specifics to your story, or you have the setting and environment firmly fixed in your brain, but you're struggling with the dialogue. Anything. And an outline can be as complex as you want it, maybe you'll write out a very detailed paragraph that you'll implant into the story itself because it was written and hit all the nuances and descriptions you needed. The same goes for dialogue - You might have brief sentences describing the scene at its bare bones, but go ham entirely on this dialogue interaction and get the whole thing scripted out. If you're struggling with a scene leading to that dialogue, or you have a scene rolling but you haven't decided the direction of the dialogue, inserting bare bones basics of your idea can benefit keeping that creative juice rolling.

Another big aspect of a draft is pacing. Which can be the trickiest concept when drafting or getting a story written. What scenes do you want to focus on? Why are they important? How do they progress the plot, the story themes you want to cover? Where are you taking the reader, and why? Because in story pacing can cover a day or an hours worth of time, in a few paragraphs - if it's not integral to the story. Like a movie montage. Or, if certain scenes and events are important, the character might spend an extended amount of time working through the scenes - i.e., paragraphs or chapters. But in your story, you have to incorporate the components that are important and interesting, and fulfil the readers need for rewards for the questions we have. In pacing your readers progress through the story, you're informing them of the events as they transpire, as they are important to your plot; you also need to keep the reader fixed in the environment so they know where they are, in reference to the characters. It might work in some cases to dump a lot of exposition onto the readers lap to get them up to speed, but for some it can be a turn off to have a lot of information to take in all at once. You can trust your process of writing that when you are giving the details at the right time, your reader will be enticed and follow, and will learn about the story at increments that are easy to understand. This can be essential to extensive world building projects, because the invested reader will stay involved with the work and keep absorbing details - then that becomes a process and relationship between the writer and reader, where both are undertaking a journey to learn about a realm that is entirely fabricated. The writer tells a story piece by piece, and the reader returns because there is always something to return to.

A good method for helping with elements like pacing and description details, is try taking the time to evaluate a graphic novel or any other rich story telling comic book media, like mangas and the sort. You can think of each panel incorporated into this visual novel as segments of paragraphs - even the little boxes that say something like WHAMO! because recall, a paragraph can be as long or as short, or a single word - its a tool at your disposal. A paragraph breaks up the flow of thought, it changes the perspective or anticipation of the reader - much like the graphic novel changes the 'camera' to view each scenes. The panels give to readers what is need to know at each moment, where and what a character is experiencing. Panels sometimes overlap, sometimes they are interesting shapes or wedge between two dynamic panels. That is how the visual story is being fed to the reader/observer, and it can be very similar to how we tell story with paragraphs - some brief paragraph inserts go over a characters internal thoughts, or a cluster of paragraphs in a sequence cover an extensive establishing scene where the characters will exist for an extended period of time. It's always important to recall pacing though, and how much in terms of details the reader needs to know.

This is also valuable to how incorporating dialogue works with in the story itself, and how to pace conversations with certain actions - dynamic or passive. Think how the reader should experience this dialogue, and what it will define of the characters. Even a purely dialogue scene can describe to the reader what is happening, or what the character is doing.

"I cannot tell you how irate I am with this situation. Ingrates! All of them! Wait. Why is my door locked?"

"Er, did no one deliver the notice? You've been replaced."

Without any context, this brief can determine a lot of different things. The first speaker is angry, and they are trying to get through a door - a door that they no longer have access to. The second speaker elaborates some news which the speaker was not given, which in itself could imply a lot of different situations - no one cared, there's been a disturbance in hierarchy, or the first speaker is very unpopular. But as I've said, a draft can be as complex or simple as you need it, so long as you can get the details down and get the general mood or theme you want to convey. All of this might shift as you elaborate the broader idea of your story, so it depends on what and where you want it all to go.

Show, don't tell. Give the reader freedom to experience the story, use their emotions and perceptions to internalize a scene. In some situations it is important to elaborate why a character feels a certain way, or why they undertake a certain action. If a character is being swept away in a river, the reader does not need to be told, Gabriel flung his arms from the frothing rapids seeking the bank, a branch, anything or he would drown under the merciless waves. The description feels more visceral and desperate if it's described, Gabriel flung his arms from the frothing rapids and lashed at sharp rocks, his fingernails ripped at wood and mud before he plunged beneath the foam. Both sentences convey the same stakes, are very similar in terms of the situation and what Gabriel needs to achieve, but the latter sentence does not need to elaborate why Gabriel is panicked and flailing - it's in the moment and immersive, wherein Gabriel and the reader are both fighting to find a handhold, but fail and are sent beneath the river's rapids. Rather tell the reader what Gabriel feels, I want to immerse my reader with the sensation and panic the character is enduring. At the same time, the process is a balance of what you need the reader to feel and keeping them adhered to the story as it unfolds. It is always okay to detach the reader from the character and exposition when it is helpful or necessary. Don't become so fixed with telling the perfect story, that the process ostracizes the readers capacity to relate or interpret what is happening, or why we should be invested.

I hope all this is helpful to the drafting process. A lot of this is also finding your style and voice in the narrative, how you choose to choreograph scenes and approach the plot. It factors into how you choose to assemble the general idea of the story, for the eventual scope of the character and readers journey. And all of that comes down to getting it written, not getting overwhelmed or hung up with an instant perfect process.