on Fiction University:

Build your story layer by layer until it stands tall.

If you’ve seen Shrek, you might remember the line: “Ogres are like onions. They have layers.” It’s a great line and a funny moment, illustrating the movie’s theme and reminding us that things aren’t always what they appear at first glance.

The same goes for writing a novel. Your first draft might look thin or awkward, more like a rough sketch than a finished story, but that’s okay. Every draft starts as a foundation, a place to discover what your story wants to be. You don’t have to figure everything out in one pass. In fact, trying to perfect every detail from the start often stalls your progress and leaves you tangled in second-guessing.

Stories are like ogres. They reveal their true selves one layer at a time.

I’m a sparse first drafter. I like to bang out a rough chapter and get the basic events down first so I know how the scene plays out. Then, I go back and layer in the other components to flesh out the chapter and bring it to life. This works for me because once I know what happens, it’s easier to see how to tweak everything to get the most out of my scene.

Layers are my secret weapon (okay, not so secret, but still a great tool). Let’s take a closer look at how they work. You can examine these layers in any order you want—this is just what I usually do.