Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Have Fun With Your First Draft
Lesson time 08:47 min
Bob takes you through his steps for writing a first draft and reminds you to enjoy the process.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: If a Novel Feels Intimidating, Try a Short Story • Try Writing in Order • Know There Will Be Changes Along the Way • Go Fast • The Satisfaction of Finishing
Teaches Writing for Young Audiences
The Goosebumps author teaches you how to generate ideas, outline a plot, and hook young readers from the first page.
Sign UpPreview
Go ahead and enjoy what you're doing. Enjoy creating your characters, and enjoy making them say all kinds of things. And go through with your first draft, and have fun with it. Think of it as fun. Think of it. You're creating this thing. You're doing this. It's not hard. It isn't hard work. It's not a struggle. And maybe, there are scenes already you don't like. You go back the next morning, and you read what you wrote yesterday, and you don't like it. Keep going. Keep going. As an aspiring writer, you might feel more comfortable starting with something that's short. You might feel more comfortable sitting down, planning something that's only 20 or 25 pages long. And if you feel more comfortable doing it, I would say do that. Do that. If you feel that starting out, it's too ambitious for you to plan a 200, 300 page novel, to work out what that would be, story is a microcosm of the novel, and just try something nice and short. Well, here's the interesting thing about short stories and novels, and writing both. I find, and maybe you will too, that writing short stories is harder. Because you have so little space, and when you write a short story, what you need, you need one really good solid idea. You need something really strong. And one really powerful thing to put into this story, to drive the story. When you write a novel, you can have a bunch of ideas, you know where you're going, you know what you want to talk about, but you've got 300 pages, 400 pages. It's so luxurious. When I write a short story, I'm like, I've got to be so concise. I've got to set it up so quickly. I have to figure out who are these characters. I got to get that characterization done. I've got to get to the problem right away, and then, I have to have a really good ending. So in that way, I think stories are harder. After the outline is approved, I'm ready to go. I sit down. I start chapter one. I write always totally in order. I'm the kind of writer that I have to, maybe you'll be like this too, I have to write right from the beginning. I have to write every word in order. I can't skip around. When we were first starting out, my wife and I collaborated on some kids books, and we did a book called, The Sick of Being Sick Book, and a couple other books and it didn't end well. Because Jane, she would write some of the middle, and then go back, and write the beginning. And I couldn't do it. We just couldn't work. I have to go entirely in order. And the collaboration actually ended up with her locking me in the closet and leaving the apartment. And, no. This is true. I probably shouldn't tell this story. But she locked me in, and just left the apartment. And we realized, we probably shouldn't be doing books together. She got me out about half an hour later. And so then, that was it. That was the last book we ever wrote together. Sometimes I'll be 2/3 of the way through the book, and I'll think, well, it would great to put in a talking cat here, or ...
About the Instructor
Award-winning novelist R.L. Stine wrote jokes and funny stories for 20 years before he switched gears and became a horror-writing legend. Since then, the author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series has sold more than 400 million copies. In his first-ever online writing class, Bob takes the fear out of crafting fiction. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, you’ll learn new ways to conquer writer’s block, develop plots, and build nail-biting suspense that will thrill young readers.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
R.L. Stine
The Goosebumps author teaches you how to generate ideas, outline a plot, and hook young readers from the first page.
Explore the Class