Reverse Outlining

Something I started doing in college that I found extremely helpful when sorting out the drek of my writing was writing a reverse outline from the rough draft. The first draft is never really a "draft" in the sense that it reads like novel. My firsts are almost always my way of letting the characters get to know each other plus a little "blocking" -- he moves there, he picks this up, they interact in this way, blah blah blah... It's workable only from a writer's standpoint (and no one should see it, ever!). I start with scrub draft and break it into chapters if I haven't already and then flesh out the story, which is always hard for me because what I write is character rather than plot-driven. Then I rewrite the whole thing.

Then I have a "first draft." Whew.