My husband has been a painter for over forty years. Even when he still was a teacher, he painted in the summer and on the weekends. When he was younger and no one had GPS, vacationers would often stop and ask the painters how to get to Hershey Park. Though usually only a few miles from the park, my husband and friends would often joke with the lost travelers that they couldn't get there from where they were. They should go home and start over.
Sometimes I feel that way when I'm writing a first draft. Often I feel that manuscript is so terrible that it can never become a publishable novel. The characters are underdeveloped. There are holes in my plot or the science doesn't make sense. There's no tension in my romance novels. All these doubts assail me when I work on a first draft. There seems no way to fix it. It just can't get to publication from where it is and I need to start over or perhaps even forget the entire story.
That's why I always set it aside for a few weeks before I try to fix it. Once I get back into it, I find that many parts of it are not so bad after all. And the parts that aren't working can be fixed. Sometimes I need to move a part of the plot or a character's reactions in a different direction. Maybe I need to but part of it away and add something more in another section. Usually I can get it to where I want it to be.
So like those lost tourists, I can get my writing where I want it to go. I made need to change the route a little to make up for some wrong turns. I might even need to stop and ask for some advice from my critique partners to get back on track to my destination. Whenever I feel discouraged by a first draft, I remind myself of all the other times I felt the same way. I can get there from where I am.
Do you like your first drafts or do they require a lot of work? How soon do you dive into editing after you finish a first draft? Do you remember when you had to ask others for directions?
18 comments:
I feel like my first drafts require a lot of work, especially the one I'm currently trying to finish.
I try to wait a month between finishing that first draft and diving into editing. But it has to be at least two weeks.
When I finish, I'm beyond relieved and think it's one giant mess at that time. But then I go back, and it's neither as bad as I thought nor is it impossible to fix. And I only let it sit a couple days. I don't remember how it began anyway.
I would've told those lost tourists they were in the wrong state...
I had a writing teacher who said the only thing that was necessary with a first draft was to get to the end. It's like those travelers. It doesn't matter how you get there, just get there.
I just like to be done, sigh of relief, then I'll have a looked, fix a few things and away to editing it will go.
I feel like mine need a lot of work. I'll set them aside for a while and then look at them with fresh eyes. It's usually not as bad as I thought.
Happy Wednesday!
Assailed by doubt is an apt description of my first draft experiences.
It helps to have someone else read after a second draft and assure me the plot does indeed make sense. :)
I write a fairly polished first draft, but (esp. if it's a long complicated story) it still needs work. Step back then polish, polish, polish...
I love my first drafts, until the next morning, then it's revise, revise, revise. Your husband is funny!
Taking a break from our own work - preferably a long one - is one of the hardest and yet most important things to do. I never want to do it - by the time I have a first draft I've been working so long and so hard that I'm thoroughly obsessed - but it's the only way to get any perspective at all. It's the only way to stop thinking both, "This is all awful and I should throw it away," and "This is a pure work of genius and I don't need to change a thing."
How soon do you seek out CPs? I haven't yet finished my first round of editing and don't want to foist this mess (AKA my WiP) on anyone until I feel like it has moved from Terrible to Not So Bad. Of course, I would need to find CPs and that could take some time. And maybe just maybe they would have an idea that would make all of the difference.
I usually like my first drafts. Then again I'm an "edit as you go" writer, so changes later on are minimal tweaks at best, new or revised paragraphs at worst. It's easy to feel this way when drafting. The real magic starts in the editing for me. :)
First drafts always require a lot of revision. Then after my crit partners review it, more revision!
Fourty years of painting, very cool. I had fun with the Lemon Tart Room. I could see why people do it for a living.
Back when I used to write non-fiction for publication, I would go for a walk after my first draft. I could spend some time away, but not much because it was a monthly deadline. Fun stuff.
Have a great week.
I like to leave a month between finishing and editing because the words still seem to be in my head, and it seems easier to overlook issues. The longer a space of time, the easier it is to catch mistakes (for me).
I completely agree with you about setting projects aside. I do the same thing with my art and comics, since distancing myself makes it easier to fix mistakes!
If I can complete a first draft then I'm usually pretty happy because I know I can probably fix all the problems. For me, though, I can't let it sit too long or I lose interest - which is where I am now: first draft done, lots of problems to fix, but slowly getting there.
I rush to finish. I like to get the freshness down, even if it's lousy. Then I love to go back, take my time and comb through the scenes until I get them the way I imagined them the first time through.
I do have to fight the urge to clean up that first draft along the way. I used to dawdle over it until I worried it to death.
I feel that way all the time and have finally started to appreciate just finishing a novel. I also have to resist editing along the way or I get stuck in a non-productive cycle
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