Writing a crummy first draft

[Chessie]

Hello everyone, this post is half sharing, half question. So after weeks of forcing myself to write for hours and coming up with nothing except deleted scenes and changes of ideas, I decided to follow up on some recent advice I've read up on writing the first draft straight without stopping, and not worrying about how poopy the draft is since its only the first one. I've been adding notes and other ideas into the the document in bold so that I have something to come back to when I return for editing. I set the timer and start writing, trying not to stop, until the time is up and not going back to change anything.

Since doing this, my word count has gone from 300 words per day to around 1,500 and I'm sure I can do more. I'm feeling free in my craft now and rather obsessed with the story itself. The main character has sprung to new life even though she's been in my head for months. The core of the story is finally on paper and I'm not struggling to make it look nice. Pretty much, my writing life has changed for now and I'm feeling more productive.

But, I'm assuming the editing process is going to be a pain in the derriere. So I'm wondering...of you other writers out there...if anyone has tried this method of writing a first draft and if there's any suggestions you might have. And how did your editing process go? Thank you.

 

[Philip Overby]

I've often taken the advice that the first draft is allowed to be crap. I've also pantsed those two novels (meaning I didn't plan much and I just wrote whatever.) I've found that when it came time to edit, it was a nightmare for me and nigh impossible for me to wrap my head around. Plots meandered, characters were inconsistent, random things happened. It just wasn't working.

However, I've learned that pantsing doesn't work for me when it comes to novels. I need to outline, plain and simple. Some people can function both ways, but I find just writing and seeing where something goes leads me in all sorts of wrong directions. If you're good at organizing a plot while also writing crap, then I don't think you'll have a problem when it comes time to editing. It's hard to say though, because some people can edit quickly and others take years.

Letting yourself go and just writing is probably more beneficial to you now and may be what works best for you.

 

[BWFoster78]

I found allowing myself to write a crappy first draft freeing. I call myself a discovery writer since I don't outline, but I generally have a good concept of where I'm headed with characters and plot even if I don't know exactly how I'm going to get there. It works for me, but I don't find myself making a lot of story changes.

Most of my editing is tightening and getting more inside the character's head.

From what you describe, it sounds like you don't have a good idea of your story and character before you begin. If that's the case, the kind of edits you're going to need to make are going to be difficult, and you'll probably end up throwing away a lot of work.

Perhaps you should remain true to the "allow yourself to write crap" mantra in terms of how you convey what you write but maybe you should think a little bit harder about what you're trying to convey?

 

[Jabrosky]

I've just started writing a crappy first draft longhand in a notebook. There is indeed something liberating about not having to care about prose quality and instead just vomiting words onto paper, but writing with a pen does make my fingers ache.

 

[Trick]

I've just started writing a crappy first draft longhand in a notebook. There is indeed something liberating about not having to care about prose quality and instead just vomiting words onto paper, but writing with a pen does make my fingers ache.

Feeling my fingers ache after writing is one of my favorite feelings in the world. It's when my wrists begin to pop and click that I know I should probably go more hi-tech. Still resisting it though.

Crummy first drafts are kind of a necessity in my experience. If you spend all your time writing as perfectly as you can in a first draft you'll also be writing as slowly as you can. But, the more you free write, the better your prose gets on your future first drafts.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I think it's a matter of what's crappy. Diction and flow aren't that hard to fix in rewrites. Motivation is trickier, as is plausibility.

 

[ThinkerX]

Since this seems to be the OP's main question:

But, I'm assuming the editing process is going to be a pain in the derriere. So I'm wondering...of you other writers out there...if anyone has tried this method of writing a first draft and if there's any suggestions you might have. And how did your editing process go? Thank you.

Here, you get into the reasons I came to this site. Decades ago, I wrote quite a bit, and all of my (attempted) tales were 'discovery' type deals. But I kept loosing interest and writing myself into corners without exits. There was a long period, where I pretty much gave up writing.

'Labyrinth' was my first effort in some years, and it was one of the few I actually finished a first draft for. That was back in 2010, if memory serves. Sometime after that, I dug a bunch of my older tales out of digital storage, and picked maybe half a dozen I deemed 'salvagable' - that is stories I could finish, and still be interesting. Then after a bit of internet searching, I came here.

The tales I picked and the progress to date with finishing/editing:

Labyrinth: Completely rewrote from scratch. I ended up deleting something like a quarter of the original, adding 15,000 words to the beginning, and around 10,000 words to the end. The original was about 45,000 words, now its around 65,000. I started by making a duplicate of the original, then breaking the original down into chapter sized chunks (the original was all one file), and going through it, deciding what needed to be cut and what needed to be expounded upon, and what bits should be moved from the middle of the tale (telling) to the beginning (showing).

Falling Towers: This was the one I had the highest hopes for initially. I actually posted parts of it here, and recieved little comment at all, most of that negative. Upon looking it over, I (easily) spotted major issues with info dumping - essentially I incorporated my writing notes into the text. The likes of Erikson and Martin can and do get away with this, we lesser lights cannot. This one is going to be a pain. It is also one of my very few works I am certain is of novel, rather than novella length.

Shadow Sea: I tinker with this one in quiet periods. I had three main challenges: too much trivial/unsupported detail/exposition, an out of sequence series of events, and tenses (an issue I don't have with my other works). I tackled the second issue first, by making a duplicate of the original and doing some cut and paste work. I then went through and added transitional sections. The overabundance of trivia was trickier: most of it needed to go, but some was essential for atmosphere and clues about the characters. A lot of it went away line by line. The tenses I'm still working at. 'Shadow Sea' is envisioned to be a three or four part work, with each part checking in at around 20,000 - 30,000 words.

'Afterbattle': This is an early tale I actually 'finished'. My rereading tells me I need to slightly revamp the beginning and redo key elements of the plot. Revamped...maybe 20,000 words.

'Death March': I almost finished this one way back when, coming to within 5000 words or so of an acceptable ending. I have to redo the beginning - it opens in the midst of a battle, and it has a subplot which needs to go somewhere but doesn't, plus I went astray with the last few thousand words. I was suprised at how good much of this actually was.

Empire: Country: I wrote this tale sometime after joining this site. I put the opening in 'showcase' only to be told there wasn't enough going on. Looking it over since then...yes, the opening does need to be shortened. I need to loose about 5000 words of 'boring stuff' from the middle. There is another 5000 word chapter at the end which is going to be cut, in favor of something more dramatic. But two long crucial parts - 20,000 words or so - look pretty good to me. I figure this one will check in at around 30,000 words total. My recent 'work' with this one has revolved around thinking about one of the major characters, trying to determine his exact social station and history. This is the tale I intend to focus on once I finish revising and editing 'Labyrinth'.

No clue if this helps or not.

 

[Penpilot]

Here's the way I think of it. The first quick draft is the sketch with light lines. After you're done the sketch you take a step back and look at your story as a whole. How does the big picture look to you? Usually, you'll see stuff you don't like and stuff that you do. You'll see that the story isn't exactly how you imagined it. At this moment, to me, it's just an ghost of what it can be.

This is where you decide what stays and what goes and what needs to be added, but because you have a foundation to work with, what you want to do and what you don't want to do becomes clearer. In the metaphoric sketch, some lines you'll make darker, and others, you'll erase and redraw. Each draft, you'll become more sure of the shape the story will take, and you'll make more and more lines darker and erase less lines.

This is IMHO why you should push through the first draft. No matter how sure you think you are of the story you're telling, the first draft is going to get ripped apart regardless, so don't spend too-too much time on it. Now, there are instances where the first draft is really good, but those are IMHO rare.

As for how doing this worked for me. In my current novel that I'm just finishing up, after the first draft, I had to throw away the last half of the book and rewrite it because it didn't fit with the spirit of what I though the book should be about. Throwing the last half away turned out to be quite easy because I didn't waste a lot of time on it in the first draft.

The advice I'd give in editing is start with the big picture and work your way down to the small stuff. I start with plot. The first think I do is I make sure there aren't any plot holes, that each action is logical for the characters given each circumstance. The next thing I do is I work on the world and characters. I make sure they're fleshed out enough and consistent. Then finally I work on the sentence structure and grammar.

Now this isn't really a linear process. It's iterative, meaning sometimes you need more than one pass to fix plot holes or you might be working on fixing grammar when you realize there's a plot hole you didn't fix, and you have to go back.

Any way I hoped this helps a little.

 

[Chessie]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I like reading about how other writers go through the process. I'm actually quite the outliner. I must have an idea for a start and finish, along with the characters, or else I can't go forward. For months, I brainstormed ideas and got hooked on a couple ones I really liked. I had actually planned to write one story and found myself stuck just a few pages in...even with all my plotting. So I started to write the story I'm doing now and found myself having the same problem. My mind kept wanting to deviate to another idea that I thought would be easier, so I said eff it and decided to try and write a crummy first draft. Its helped and I'm feeling more solid in this story now but I can tell the editing is going to suck with all the stuff I keep putting in notes.

 

[C Hollis]

For myself, the first draft has always been a brain dump. The primary goal being to get it out of my head before I forget it, and never giving a flip about how long it will take to edit it. If I spent my energy trying to write a clean rough, I doubt I would ever finish a story.

Now, I find my brain dumps are cleaner than they were years ago. Those long nights hacking and slashing my way through a rough filled with bantha poodoo have taught me several things that have become more natural for me to write from the get go.

In the end, I believe I have learned more, and written more, by just allowing myself to write what falls out of my head.

 

[BWFoster78]

My experience is quite different than what most people express. Even when writing pure discovery style like with Abuse of Power, I rarely change any major elements. I tend to add a lot of detail to strengthen certain elements in the second draft and cut deeply for the third draft.