Some of you may remember I asked about this. How do I know my first draft is done?
Well, I have one way of doing it: declare victory and go home.
Seriously. I have unfinished chapters. I have chapters I know I must rewrite. But I'm declaring First Draft and there you go. Shoot first and whatever you hit, call that the target.
It was liberating. I was able to step away from the novel, turn my attention elsewhere. The writing conference I just went to was actually fun. Moreover, once I had just a teensy bit of distance, I had an insight that gave me another (probably more useful) way to decide First Draft is done.
I do a fair amount of writing with pen and paper. The reasons for this have been discussed elsewhere and aren't relevant. Then I type it up into Scrivener, and all editing happens on the computer from there out.
The insight was this: I have a First Draft when I no longer can make progress with pen and paper.
It's a First Draft when I'm no longer writing anything significant from whole cloth, nothing substantial that is new. I will certainly write sentences and paragraphs, but it's unlikely I'll do whole passages. And even if I do, they'll probably be done at the computer, with reference to already-written text. I have moved in a fundamental way from creating to crafting.
This was really helpful for me to understanding about my own process. Here's hoping it is of some use to my Fellow Travelers.
Well, I have one way of doing it: declare victory and go home.
Seriously. I have unfinished chapters. I have chapters I know I must rewrite. But I'm declaring First Draft and there you go. Shoot first and whatever you hit, call that the target.
It was liberating. I was able to step away from the novel, turn my attention elsewhere. The writing conference I just went to was actually fun. Moreover, once I had just a teensy bit of distance, I had an insight that gave me another (probably more useful) way to decide First Draft is done.
I do a fair amount of writing with pen and paper. The reasons for this have been discussed elsewhere and aren't relevant. Then I type it up into Scrivener, and all editing happens on the computer from there out.
The insight was this: I have a First Draft when I no longer can make progress with pen and paper.
It's a First Draft when I'm no longer writing anything significant from whole cloth, nothing substantial that is new. I will certainly write sentences and paragraphs, but it's unlikely I'll do whole passages. And even if I do, they'll probably be done at the computer, with reference to already-written text. I have moved in a fundamental way from creating to crafting.
This was really helpful for me to understanding about my own process. Here's hoping it is of some use to my Fellow Travelers.