Don't know what to do after first draft

[Netardapope]

I just finished the first draft for my first book, and I've come across a little dilemma. I don't know whether I should revise this draft or move on to the next novel I have in mind immediately. I've assembled some pros and cons for revising it at my current skill level.

Pros:
I earn experience in revision.

I won't have to come back to the story later. (Which I will do, regardless of the course of action I take now)

Less chance of getting lazy and never revising the story

Cons:
It's my first novel, so it's likely going to suck regardless of what I do at this point

Once I gain more experience, I'll come back to it. Which means whatever revisions I do now might not be up to par with my later skill

Ideas have a short time frame for how long they interest me enough to write them

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[Miskatonic]

Nothing wrong in waiting a little bit before going back for the first revision. If you want to start working on something in the meanwhile then go for it, but set yourself a date that you'll go back and look at the completed first draft on. I wouldn't just stick it in a drawer and forget about it completely.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I'm with Miskatonic, but first, let me say this:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

You've completed the first draft of a manuscript. That's something a majority of aspiring writers try, but fail to accomplish. You should feel accomplished.

Now, while you're basking in the glow of finishing that first draft, put it away for awhile & set a date to start revisions. For me, it's eight weeks before I'll start editing a first draft. You may be different, but most professional authors advise at least six weeks.

There's a few reasons for this practice, the two main purposes being:

1) Focusing your mind on something else is a needed refresher, and a well deserved break.

2) When you do start revisions, it'll seem more new. You won't readily recognize the words as yours, at least not in the way you would if you started editing right away. It will appear different, and fresh, with distance.

Eventually though, I'll advise you to revise, even if you think it's crap. The vast majority of first drafts are crap, but revision makes them better. Writing is often more about revision than drafting. Revision is the practice that makes good books. Revision is a skill that you will need to be successful. So, you've learned what you need to do to complete a first draft. Now, after a bit of time, you'll need to learn your process for revision...what you must do to make your drafts into great stories.

One more thing that may help:
While your waiting to enter the revision phase, work on something completely different in feel, and maybe even in length.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Some depends on how you work, but even with different styles, I recommend the put a little distance between you and the first draft. But if you've just written straight through, you might already have distance from chapter 1. Some folks write for a year and haven't looked at chapter 1 since they began and so picking things up from the start already has distance. That's the primary reason I would recommend starting the revision early, if you work like that.

Me, I'm a constant reviser, the whole when finished is a draft without number. LOL.

 

[Jim Aikin]

Eventually though, I'll advise you to revise, even if you think it's crap. The vast majority of first drafts are crap, but revision makes them better. Writing is often more about revision than drafting. Revision is the practice that makes good books. Revision is a skill that you will need to be successful. So, you've learned what you need to do to complete a first draft. Now, after a bit of time, you'll need to learn your process for revision...what you must do to make your drafts into great stories.

This is great advice. Revision can mean anything from choosing a better adjective here or there to adding or deleting whole sections. Revision can be painful, but it's essential.

 

[Chessie]

I don't know whether I should revise this draft or move on to the next novel I have in mind immediately.

This. I don't know what your time constraints are but you could always edit the first book and draft the second one at the same time.

 

[Netardapope]

Firstly, thank you all for the support! This forum helped me when I started doubting my writing or running out of ideas!

Secondly, I forgot to mention that this was meant to be my "magnum opus" series, which is why I wasn't sure if I wanted to revise after I finish my first draft or after completing more books. This book means a lot to me, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it justice with my current skill.

This in turn is why I'm contemplating making another book which I do plan on revising in my current skill level. The idea is to get experienced enough that I can do my "dream" book justice

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[skip.knox]

There is another option you might consider: put your first draft out to a beta reader or to a critique group. If you took this path I would advise you do some research on what to expect, what kinds of questions to ask of your reader, and how to deal with potentially difficult feedback.

The ideal would be to have other eyes look at the manuscript, to discover where you might improve regarding character development, pacing, continuity issues, and plot. These are all things the author himself can easily miss. The risk is that your feedback sends you down blind alleys, undercuts confidence, or is simply wrong. There is something to be said for gaining experience in dealing with this because every published writer must, whether in the form of editor's critique, agent feedback, or just plain public reviews. But you don't necessarily need to get all that with your very first draft of your very first novel.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

...put your first draft out to a beta reader or to a critique group.

I wouldn't recommend this until after you've run at least a couple revisions. With critique groups, you get out what you put in. You want to send your reviewers the best work you're capable of completing. That's usually not what a first draft is. You're unlikely to get valuable feedback if you're presenting sloppy, unedited work.

Also, you mention this is the first installment of a planned series. I'd still urge you to revise before continuing. If changes to the first volume are made during revision, you may have to revise everything thereafter, which could involve changes to multiple books.

 

[Netardapope]

I wouldn't recommend this until after you've run at least a couple revisions. With critique groups, you get out what you put in. You want to send your reviewers the best work you're capable of completing. That's usually not what a first draft is. You're unlikely to get valuable feedback if you're presenting sloppy, unedited work.

Also, you mention this is the first installment of a planned series. I'd still urge you to revise before continuing. If changes to the first volume are made during revision, you may have to revise everything thereafter, which could involve changes to multiple books.

The next book I plan to work on is not the sequel, I want to take a break for a while with a new world. Of course, before I get around to the sequels, I do plan on having revised the first book.

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[Chessie]

How much/what did you learn while writing the first book? The only way to apply those lessons is to write a new one. But really, do what your gut tells you. If you're leaning more towards writing a new one, then do that and go with what pulls you.

 

[Incanus]

You know your own skills, habits, and the nature of the story better than anyone else, so this is a question you will have to find your way through.

That said, I think the best course would be for you to edit this story before tackling the next one (and yes, taking a bit of a break before doing so.) My reasoning is:

1. You will learn things about writing that can be applied to your next first draft that you might not have otherwise.

2. If you draft another book, you will have TWO books requiring editing. That’s a lot of time spent away from drafting or developing another story. One way or another, sooner or later, you are going to have to develop editing skills. What better time than having a completed first draft?

3. You can always go back to editing the first book even more after completing the second book.

 

[skip.knox]

>You know your own skills, habits, and the nature of the story

You are a better writer than I.

I am still learning about my skills and habits. And I often hear that an agent or editor sees the essence of a story when the author did not. Some artists do indeed have such a clear vision. I think the word for them is "genius". The rest of us need all the help we can get!

 

[Miskatonic]

I think your ability to demonstrate that you can avoid amateur pitfalls with your first pages or chapters, in combination with a story to sparks the reader's interest is what will weigh heavily when your manuscript is reviewed.

 

[Incanus]

>You know your own skills, habits, and the nature of the story

You are a better writer than I.

I haven't a clue, but it's hardly to be determined by anything here. The (unquoted) phrase at the end is crucial:

You know your own skills, habits, and the nature of the story better than anyone else.

The statement was relative to the rest of us. Surely you know your own habits and your stories better than someone else would? I don't think you need to be a genius to have a sense of that. I'm only vaguely aware of the habits of others; I know my habits (good and bad) fairly well. And of course, there is always, always room for improvement.

 

[Deleted member 4379]

For my writings, I usually take half a year break from my novels. During that time I have always learned a lot and the first draft seems pretty bad, making it easier to find the bad parts.

 

[Velka]

When I finished my first draft I didn't look at it for a month. Instead I worked on a few side projects, gave myself some breathing time to just read, and started working on the second book of the series.

I honestly think time and the distance it creates is necessary to be able to look at your work with a more critical, rather than, creative eye. It's hard to scrap a scene you love but has no purpose, write out characters that slow things down, scrap a beautiful piece of description that just wastes words and pacing, etc when you're still in creating mode. Coming back at a piece of work wearing your editor's hat requires a different frame of mind.

I've since been juggling editing book one and writing book two. Some days it's a good thing, some days it feels a bit like self-inflicted torture.

 

[Gurkhal]

As mentioned, put it aside and do something else for a while before you return to your draft.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I wrote ten novels before I ever "learned to write" so I'm not sure what to advise. While there's something good to be said about continuing writing, it's hard to go back once your skills are significantly better and revise old work (which I'm doing now). However, I feel I've "wasted" a lot of time revising before I knew what to do, so there's that, too.

I think if you're going to revise now, it's crucial to have a plan (which I didn't when I began revising). Know what your goals are, step as far back from the work as you can, looking at it really objectively, and get a good partner or three to help point out things that ARE working and things that aren't.

My feeling is that you should keep writing, and my reasoning is that as you write, you gain more skills. You also change things or get better ideas for what you wrote earlier. Maybe something in the world changes, or a character's actions in the previous book affect the future world? If that's the case, revising it first would have wider effects on the future stories. I have a situation where in the first book (which will never be revised), a couple met and eventually got married. They had one son, who is in the fourth book, and I always wondered why they had only the one child...Did they have a fertility problem? Were they too busy? Were they estranged? I never made a decision, until yesterday! I'm not really going to revise the book, but since the people all appear in book four, which I am going to revise, I decided I should know why it happened the way it did. I decided that in book three, when the wife goes in search of her husband, who was lost or something in a foreign land (originally he was arrested and needed rescuing), the wife discovers a sad truth. He wasn't in fact kidnapped or arrested or lost, his buddies sent a letter home saying he was, but in reality, he was living the high life in a foreign land, and had no real intent to return home. Ta-da! Now I have a real reason for them to have not made a long life together and why their son is an only child, and why their love story didn't turn out magical. I still have to run through the full ramifications before I go with it, but I just made a major change to book three (which is a first draft and won't be rewritten to be published in the future), and if I'd revised the first three books, I would have just wasted my time.

I know this is your magnum opus, but as we keep writing, we get better ideas, change huge things, and all around become stronger story-tellers. Only you can determine whether it's worth your time to revise now or keep writing and hone your skills as you go.

While I feel very defeated in revising old work, I feel strongly enough about the stories to undertake the task, because they mean a lot to me. But they're rubbish, and I can see that now, when I couldn't see it then. They need full rewrites. Which means all the many hours I spent in revision over the past four years, must be ultimately called a waste. I was too focused on a goal of perfecting my story-telling, and I developed a very small scope of "serious writer voice" and I cut a ton of things that I shouldn't have. I would encourage you to strike a balance I obviously failed to. Plan your revision, if you can. Decide which biggest elements you should work on first, and leave all the nagging details for final passes with focused scopes (say one pass on only character consistency, etc).

Best wishes!