Thread: ...But just HOW bad are your first drafts?

All the writing advice people say that the 'true' writing is the editing and revising, and getting it right first time is a privilege. But how true is that, really? Does anyone's first drafts read like they've been written by a six year old, before being sliced up to become beautiful prose?

So yeah, just how bad are your first drafts? Mine are horrible -- descriptions consist o stuff like she looked at it and she realised that it was green and round and shiny and it had a smallish hole in the centre and it looked like it was soft so she tried poking it and it felt kind of like cotton

I end up editing the first draft about 75% of the time. It's generally the most immediate.

Mine are varied. Most requires some editing, but a first draft will also usually include bits where iI was inspired that require little editing and total crap passages that have to be rewritten entirely or very substantially revised.

Originally Posted by Denbigh

All the writing advice people say that the 'true' writing is the editing and revising, and getting it right first time is a privilege. But how true is that, really? Does anyone's first drafts read like they've been written by a six year old, before being sliced up to become beautiful prose?

So yeah, just how bad are your first drafts? Mine are horrible -- descriptions consist o stuff like she looked at it and she realised that it was green and round and shiny and it had a smallish hole in the centre and it looked like it was soft so she tried poking it and it felt kind of like cotton

Mine are bad. Very bad. I make no apologies for how bad they are. (Take a post on my Blog, and realize that as bad as they are, they have been revised, at least once, because my first drafts I could not figure out what I just typed)

But those raw ideas, like a big ol' block of clay are then reformed, refined, sculpted, painted, and then finally fired into a finished porcelain product.

Originally Posted by alanmt

Mine are varied. Most requires some editing, but a first draft will also usually include bits where iI was inspired that require little editing and total crap passages that have to be rewritten entirely or very substantially revised.

This.

The more you do them, the better you get at them, I suppose. Harlan Ellison's first draft and final draft was "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

My short stories are mostly thought through and outlined in detail before I start writing.

As I write, I do a lot of editing and fiddling -- rewriting sentences and paragraphs until I'm satisfied with them. Because I work from an outline, I often write the story out of sequence.

As a result of this method, there really is no "first draft." And when I'm finished, there isn't a lot or rewriting to do -- just tweaks, refinement and proof reading.

Originally Posted by Denbigh

All the writing advice people say that the 'true' writing is the editing and revising, and getting it right first time is a privilege.

None of that matters. You'll arrive at your own working method. And as long as you're satisfied with the results, it doesn't matter what the "writing advice people say" -- whoever they are.

Once finished, I'll always read over the story from beginning to end, picking up on any typos, grammatical errors, or plot holes. But usually, as far as the bones of the story go, my first draft is my final draft less minor corrections and tweaks. I very rarely make huge changes to the story unless something major is wrong -- like a plot strand that doesn't have any place.

Mine are pretty horrible for long works. Shorter, not quite so bad. The one project, I had to remove and replace three chapters after several tries to fix it. The problem I tend to have, as I go through things again, is I can do one or two things well at a time, but forget the other things. Most of my work is on revising rather than drafting.

I edit as I go pretty neurotically. To the point that once I'm finished, I leave it for a day or two. I might change a few words, or get rid of a superfluous sentence of two, but otherwise I'm done. So IMO my first drafts are good.

It does make it nearly impossible to finish things, I lose steam easily because the raw thought gets thwarted by obsessive compulsive nit picking. I might have to un-learn my edit-as-I-go tendencies if I ever want to write more than a short story. Or even a fucking short story these days.

Originally Posted by Denbigh

So yeah, just how bad are your first drafts? Mine are horrible

I can't entirely agree with Hemingway's claim that the first draft of anything is sh*t, but my first drafts are generally horrible and so are almost all first drafts I've ever read written by other people. And it doesn't matter, because unless you're so good that you can write a great first draft, you're not going to show the story to anyone until you've got it right.

...

Fairly pathetic is what it is, lol. I get ideas down, and sometimes I get passages that I like alot, that only have to be somewhat tweaked, but mostly my chapters are like huge puzzles that I arrange, and rearrange, and cut, and paste, and read ten times for grammer problems.
Add, subtract, trade common for poetic. Laugh at myself.

Somedays I think I ought to write those choose your way sort of books, where you decide which page you'll go to to get the next chapter because I have difficulty making up my mind how I want something to go.
And I am neurotic as Fox describes, editing as I go.

I'm an obsessive editor. I write on paper first, which is always covered in crossings out. I then type it up, re-drafting and re-writing as I go. Then I print it, cover the printed copy in alterations, then make the changes on the digital copy.

Repeat as neccessary.

This is why I fail at NaNo. I'm too controlling. My official first drafy is always like my sixth.

My first drafts are, barring typos and whatnot, virtually identical to the final versions. I must be special.