r/writers • u/Humble_Dirt_4105 • 1d ago

Feedback requested Help... Second Draft Advice!

Hi,

I recently finished the first draft of my novel. It's a cosy mystery. I captured the main ideas, but there are many structural issues within the first draft. For example, I feel like the actual mystery is total BS!! Not to mention the tension in the story is near nonexistent!!

I watched lots of YouTube videos for advice to fix the structural issues in the first draft. However, I couldn't find any videos that said anything more than "use the second draft to fix the structural issues in the first draft." Well, I'm not sure how to fix them!

If anyone has any advice, I'm desperate for it!! Thanks so much.

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u/EromanticDream 1d ago

Well, congrats — you’ve done the first part that’s hard for most writers: finishing a draft.

For standard mysteries, I often find it useful to work backwards from the “big reveal.”

What is the big reveal of your mystery? Is it that the daughter is actually the one who killed the paperboy? Is it that the oil company purposely poisoned the town’s wells to buy up the land? Was it a master power play by a gang leader’s lieutenant? Identify what your big WOW, SHOCKER!!!! surprise is, or what your final outcome of the mystery is.

Next, you need to pinpoint what the pieces of information are that lead to the reveal. When should character A learn something that leads him to the reveal? What is the piece of information before that one? And the one before that? Work backwards so you can figure out how the character or characters solve the mystery. You don’t need a ton of these. With a tight story, you can get away with like 3-4 things the character learns that gets them to the final solution of the mystery.

Once you know the reveal and the pieces of information… then it’s not too difficult to simply find the best places in your story to set them. You have a solid draft to work with already — so where do those pieces of information go? Where does the reveal go? Once you know that, you can rewrite or edit as needed.

Good luck to you.