1. I think it depends on what a zero draft is to someone. I've had people look at my skeletal first drafts and call them zero drafts. To me, they aren't. They are bones, but not a blueprint or outline. Creativity was involved, words that will end up in the final draft are there. I just get the pleasure of taking what I have and molding it. It's not a sketch on a page, it's the armature.
For me, long outlines in any form kill the story. Many stories have died that way, much to my disappointment. I love them, but I'm no longer in love with them. The sparkle has essentially been scrubbed out.
2. Boredom can happen for a million reasons, so it depends. Sometimes I step away, sometimes I take a break, sometimes I create something related to the story in a different artistic medium. But then sometimes, I shelve it—for now, forever, for a day that may never come.
3.. The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing by David Morrell for advanced writers. It's unlike anything I've read before—not a craft book, not a memoir, just something else. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke for both. You just can't go wrong with a book that's not about craft but definitely still is in some way.
1. I think it depends on what a zero draft is to someone. I've had people look at my skeletal first drafts and call them zero drafts. To me, they aren't. They are bones, but not a blueprint or outline. Creativity was involved, words that will end up in the final draft are there. I just get the pleasure of taking what I have and molding it. It's not a sketch on a page, it's the armature.
For me, long outlines in any form kill the story. Many stories have died that way, much to my disappointment. I love them, but I'm no longer in love with them. The sparkle has essentially been scrubbed out.
2. Boredom can happen for a million reasons, so it depends. Sometimes I step away, sometimes I take a break, sometimes I create something related to the story in a different artistic medium. But then sometimes, I shelve it—for now, forever, for a day that may never come.
3.. The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing by David Morrell for advanced writers. It's unlike anything I've read before—not a craft book, not a memoir, just something else. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke for both. You just can't go wrong with a book that's not about craft but definitely still is in some way.