Invincible Drafts (From First to Final)

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains loads of Invincible spoilers...LOADS!! You’ve been warned.

So a while ago, I wrote a post about “The Story Behind Invincible,” and in that post, I briefly explained the process of the revision runs of Invincible, but never actually went into full detail about them. So here I am today, providing an answer to yet another behind-the-scenes question.

So, how much did Invincible change between the rough draft and its final result? Well, I’ll tell you.

The First Draft

The rough draft of Invincible was a little around 47,000 words long. In other words, that’s means there were less than 200 pages in the original draft.  

To be honest, the storyline was pretty much all there in that first draft:

-Troy wakes up in Brad’s home, doesn’t know who he is
-Troy’s re-discovery of his super-hearing, leading to his fight with Rick
-Troy’s training scenes

-Troy decides to become Lion-Man
-Troy, Jack, and Taylor’s bonding moments
-Hector and Davidson

-The high school invasion

-Troy re-discovering his Iarnamian past
-The finale at the Ambassador Bridge
-Troy and Taylor’s discussion at the end

So believe it or not, the structure was exactly the same as when I first wrote it. I think the only change that I applied before going into the second draft would be changing unnecessary sentence and shorting them. Ex: “I slowly shift my head to the black wooden, four legged chair, only to see know no person sitting there.” And for obvious reasons, it got changed to “I turn my head to the empty seat.” If you’re one of those writers where sometimes you’re feeling yourself and try to sound all authory, you’ll understand.

The Second Draft

I pretty much call the two rounds of revisions after the first draft "the second draft.” The reason for that is because I learned so much from those two revisions that I simply call them the second draft, because saying “I learned this from Revision 1”, or “I found this out in Revision 2” seem a little much.

During my time with the revisions, I added about 8,000 words. The second draft was around 55,000 words long, so that adds up to pretty much the same amount of pages on a word document. Like I said, all main components were in place, so I didn't really take anything out. The only problem was that it was a little sloppy and very sparse in its detail. I decided to add small little nuances to the romantic scenes with Troy and Taylor (Ex: The glares, the touching of the hand, pushing back a strand of hair back behind the ear), just to bring out a little sexual tension and chemistry between the two. I added more details about Alex, because in the first draft, it just seemed like I was seeing Side B of her (her toughness and anger, her Post-Iarnamian life), without ever really discovering Side A (her kindness and her naiveté, her Pre-Iarnamian life). Having Troy look back on those past memories of her helped flesh her out and made me understand her better. I also fleshed out the Hector-Jack relationship (which in turn added more depth to the Troy and Jack dynamic), the Iarnamian flashbacks and their conflict with the Catchers (for world-building), and either cut or added little details into certain sections (For pacing reasons) because they were either dragging on or too short. I also made the big decision to change Kantos’ (The main antagonist) name, because (A. It never felt right to me and (B. It was downright lame.

The Final Draft

So in the final inning (Ironic, seeing as I’m not even a sports fan), I added 1,000 words, totaling the final draft in at about 56,000 words, exactly 203 pages on Microsoft Word. I added a few more subtle changes, and did a lot more copy-editing (because really, who wants to read bad grammar and punctuation, eh?). The biggest challenge came from making sure Troy’s character arc was the way it was supposed to. Did this character go from Point A to B? Was that journey consistent? Did it pay off? Luckily, that part wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and I got the results with great satisfaction.

So basically, the process for me was nothing more than a little bit of tweaking (Well, not just tweaking, but you get the idea). For me, the first draft was building a skeleton, and the journey to get it to the final draft was simply adding flesh and blood, and muscles and weight to it.

All in all, the revision process on Invincible was almost as amazing as an experience than it was actually writing. It was my first time really revising my work, so I didn’t know what to expect. But all writers are different. Our styles are always going to be distinct from one another, in writing and in editing. And yeah, it may not feel right the first time, but that’s okay. My editing with Invincible was one of its kind, and given what I’ve learned and what I can and can not do, my editing experience with the sequels will be one of a kind also.

So I guess the small advice I’ll give to you is to take your time and learn from it. You’ll become a better writer (and person) because of it!

Invincible Playlist

As part of my writing process, I listen to music. It helps me to strengthen a certain tone, or better channel a character’s emotions during a scene. I thought it would cool to post the songs I listened to while writing Invincible, so here they are:

1. “Somewhere I Belong” — Linkin Park

2. “Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture)”— Muse

3. “Look After You”— The Fray

4.  “New Perspective” — Panic! At The Table

5.  “Forest Battle” — Steve Jablonsky

6.  “Make You Feel My Love” — Adele

7. “Next to You” — Chris Brown ft. Justin Bieber

8.  “The Catalyst” — Linkin Park

9.  “I Rise, You Fall”— Steve Jablonsky

10. “Born To Be Somebody”— Justin Bieber

Alternates:

• *“Written in the Stars” — Tinie Tempah ft. Eric Turner
• *“Lighters” — Bad Meets Evil ft. Bruno Mars

*I couldn’t really make up my mind on the last track (#10 and the alts all fit for the same scene), so you can pick whichever one you think is best.

Any of these songs match your fan playlist of Invincible. If not, feel free to share them. Also, let me know which particular scenes you think I had in mind with these songs.