Some people can write really, really fast. I will be the first to tell you that I am not one of those people. And with NaNoWriMo coming up, that can make winning—that is, writing all 50,000 words of a new draft during November’s thirty days—seem like an impossible feat.
Enter brackets, one of the modern keyboard’s most neglected punctuation marks. Their rarity in fiction make them incredibly easy to find by performing Control/Command + F to replace them, and they have the magical ability to speed up the writing process when they’re used effectively.
I don’t know where I first heard of these uses of brackets. More likely than not, it was a Tumblr post I came across twenty times in my feed during the days of my youth. (That’s where all my best tips have come from, to be honest with you.) But the applications of this technique are nearly endless!
I use brackets most often when I am writing a Draft Zero to differentiate between text I want to keep in the draft and notes to myself about what I want my draft to become. But that speaks to how I write, and you and I might not write the same way, so here are three other ways you can incorporate brackets into your drafting this November and beyond.
Use #1: Give [mc] a Temporary Name
Some writers—me included—agonize over names. I demand from myself that the names in my stories be time period appropriate, unique without being outrageous, and truly meaningful. That’s a tall order for every single name, and sometimes I draw blanks. This is where brackets can come in.
A crisp autumn breeze tickled the back of [mc]’s neck, and it reminded her of what she’d done. She dragged her fingers through her new pixie cut. Not for the first time, she worried what [frenemy] would say.
Let’s all ignore whether the actual words I’ve written make any sense, and let’s instead pay attention to the placeholders: [mc], which is a common shortening of “main character,” and [frenemy]. I could have used [protagonist] and [antagonist], but I choose to use even shorter—yet memorable and identifiable—names for roles to keep my fingers flying across the keyboard.
Use #2: Find the Right [noun/adjective/verb/witty remark] Later
Again, this is about placeholders, but used differently. Forget stopping to look for synonyms or googling endlessly to find the word that’s on the tip of your tongue. Forget stopping for anything at all!
Starla gazed out the window at the [colors] planet. Clouds swirled above the surface, and for a moment, she forgot how nervous she was about starting a new school in a new galaxy. Until the [sound] behind her broke her concentration. “Orion, you better not be [embarrassing moment] again!”
Fixing these might be a bit more complex than “Find and Replace All” like names would, but if you search for the beginning or end bracket (that is, [ or ]) in your manuscript, you’ll find all the little places that need buffering out.
Use #3: [fix this in next draft]
Depending on the writing software you’ve taken up using, you might not have the ability to leave yourself comments. This is one solution to that conundrum, as opposed to making notes in a separate document or on paper. Or maybe you do have the ability to comment, but doing so would involve breaking concentration to highlight the relevant text and click buttons. This is a simpler way to make notes without interrupting your flow.
Heart pounding in his chest, Jorge peered around the corner. The first thing he saw was the red [How would the blood splatter from a gunshot?] on the walls. He resisted looking lower, but eventually, he dragged his eyes down. There was Bridget, lying disturbingly still. [Heart or head shot? Change shape of pool of blood?]
Now, this suggestion may be controversial. Unlike the forgivable one or two words from substituting a color or a name, this way of using brackets involves adding words to your draft that won’t necessarily equate to the number of words if you’d use otherwise. I would argue that all words written towards a first draft count during NaNoWriMo—that your dogged pursuit of a draft allows a little forgiveness.
Have you used brackets before in your writing?
If so, do you use them in the same ways I’ve outlined here, or can you teach us a new method in the comments below?
I do use brackets in my drafting process, mainly to tag names or words I may want to change later. You’ve given me more ideas on ways to use them and also helped me give myself permission to use them more broadly. Thanks, great article!