First draft problems

I agree with T Allen Smith. My personal system is never to revise until I have a complete draft, because sometimes what is revealed once I complete the draft is that the middle needs to change as well. If I'd revised the beginning to match the middle, everything would have to change again! Once I have the entire thing laid out, I have a much clearer idea of how things should shift and change, and that makes revising easier.

But! Make notes at this point as to how you think the beginning should change at this point, and keep them up to date as you progress. This is good for you for reference as you continue (for instance: if you've changed which character is responsible for an Event, you can make sure the references are right from now on) but also it will help you identify where there are glitches (for instance: right now you think that character X needs to die in the ambush in chapter 8, but when you get closer to the end, you might realise you desperately need character X to still be alive - with your notes, you'll be one step closer to ironing out how best to solve that problem).

The other reason I advocate pushing ahead and finishing the draft is that nothing invigorates and energises like finishing a whole thing. It's an amazing feeling. Even if the thing is full of holes and an utter mess, it is a finished thing. Your sandpit is full of sand! Now you can build sandcastles with it.

 

I echo the common wisdom. Push through, get your first draft done and then revise.

There is a reason it is often called a "vommit draft". That is because it feels a whole lot better when you get it all out.

 

Ill say to you what I should have done. I am now on my third draft of my main story and I redid it every 25 pages before I finished the story and before I clearly thought everything out.
So I beleive it would have been better to finish first and then go back redo and get people opinion if your having friends read it.

 

Hi Bearman, the answer to your question lies in what you are comfortable doing with your story. Although right now it seems that you aren't sure which direction to take it or have a sure fire process in mind. I'll give you my process but ultimately, you have to decide what works for you.

I typically plot strongly before I write the first word. In the past, I've written all the way to the end without direction, only to come out with crap that I don't like. I don't do that anymore. What I call a first draft is a test drive of my outline, with detailed story beats and many written scenes. This is just the way I seem to work best. For my WIP, I felt about halfway that it wasn't what I wanted, but continued writing, and ended up deleting a lot of material (all of the last half of the story, and some of the first half).

This is what I'm doing to "fix it":
-took a step back, went over the story goal and the goals of the characters involved. Discovered it was a lack of character development that was making things funky.

-hit up some plotting books, currently going over "20 Master Plots and How to Develop Them", also "Rock Your Plot", just to get a feel for plot points again and maybe learn something new that could get me out of my stickiness.

-mapped out the first half of the book again, had to see physically where I deviated at midpoint and ended up with a crap ending. I do this with a spreadsheet and notecards (writer OCD).

-revisited the main theme of my story, simplified it, and cut out a second POV and a few extra things that I basically had in there to show off my world, but didn't serve purpose to the story.

*Your job as the creator of a story is to keep everything focused on plot and character, period. Take out everything that isn't related to the main objective, no matter how cool of an idea it is or well-written the narrative is. These extras will only serve to take you off course, and that's how you end up stuck. Intuitively, you know something is off. I suggest taking a step back and reanalyzing your story/plot/character arcs AFTER you finish the draft. Why? Because only when you get to the end will you have a real sense of what feels right for the story. You won't know unless you get there.

The best advice I can give you is to not get too attached to your first drafts. They aren't going to be perfect for the most part, and any writer who says that their first drafts are near perfection are...well...not the most of us. Use this draft as a test drive and a way to learn more about the story.

I highly recommend checking out some plot resources. The books I mentioned are excellent, well as K.M. Weiland's "Plot Your Story Workbook", there's also James Scott Bell who I haven't read personally but I've heard plenty of great things about his craft books. There's websites, youtube videos (Brandon Sanderson has an amazing one from Write About Dragons, specific to our genre). Use these resources to your advantage. Learn more about story crafting but keep writing that draft.

And while you are writing it, find your way back to the main objective of your story. Don't let those characters meander. YOU are in control. Best of luck and if you ever need more conversation on plotting, hit me up. I'm a plotting freak.

 

It depends on how you prefer to do your edits. I know the common convention will say to push through to the end then go back in a 2nd draft but it really depends on how you write.

For me, if I don't edit along the way (at very least stopping to reread it every 25 - 50 pages) my writing gets really off track and I'm left with a bunch of trash that's probably best left for the waste basket. If you're that far in it's probably best not to completely rewrite it but if you know exactly how you would change it atm- (in file 2) outline beginning #2 and keep that as a viable option. Then push through to the end & when you come back for draft 2 you'll be able to decide if you want to go w beginning 1, 2, or something else entirely.

Of course, we're all just giving personal opinions here. The writing process is intensely personal so what would be best for me might not be what's best for you.

If it was me, I would have rewritten the beginning 2 or 3 times already

 

My first thought on seeing the question was "Push on! Push on!" but then I read TheCatholicCrow's post and realized that my approach is actually the same as hers. I redid the start of my WIP three times because it just didn't feel right. However, I fixed it in the end and now I am probably about a third of the way in with greatly improved ideas and a clear plan for where I'm going. If I had stuck with the first version, I think I would have given up on the story by now.

That said, it is essential to finish the first draft, even if you have to leave it for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. The satisfaction of finishing even a rough draft is worth all the effort it takes to get there.