Victoria Schwab on bad first drafts

For me, writing a first draft is an exercise in controlled failure. Or at least, controlled falling.

The dilemma is that, the more books you write, the more aware you become of when things are Not Working, but no matter how many books you write, you don’t become magically capable of fixing something until you have something to fix.
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I think this is brilliant.
 
Thank you very much. I feel this in particular:

"The dilemma is that, the more books you write, the more aware you become of when things are Not Working"

Has been my last six months or so in a nutshell. Hard work. Sometimes, nothing is better than to simply hear that's just how it is and you've not gone insane.
 
I like the related thing that Terry Pratchett said - that until he's written the book he doesn't know what it is about.
 
My first drafts are horrendous. But the more I write I do find it easier to spot things on the fly. Not grammarly things (I'll always suck at that), but descriptions, telling, world building. I try to get words down as fast as possible, then add these bits later, but with more practice I've been able to incorporate this as I go. I try to turn off my internal editor, as it does stifle my creativity. But lately I've been finding a happy middle ground. Well, maybe 80/20, vomit words/readable prose
 
The Big Peat said:
Sometimes, nothing is better than to simply hear that's just how it is and you've not gone insane.
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It's strange, but I don't remember hearing that since... ever. Can't think why:sneaky:
Juliana said:
Oh, you're insane all right. We all are.
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Oh, well, that's fine then. I was starting to wonder if I needed to change my username to Gonk the Mildly Peturbed.:)
 
Juliana said:
Oh, you're insane all right. We all are. Otherwise, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, we wouldn't be here (writing)... :D
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Yes, but I didn't go that type of insane. I was born it. I don't want to go another type of insane. They just don't accessorise together.
 
It's true, first drafts are frequently awful, and I now think that one of the most important steps to being a writer is the acceptance that the first draft you churn out is most likely going to honk. Once you realise that it becomes far easier to go back and change things.

However, it's probably worth saying that not all first drafts honk, and there are probably some exceptions to the rule, but it's probably not realistic for most of us to expect this to be the case.
 
DG Jones said:
I now think that one of the most important steps to being a writer is the acceptance that the first draft you churn out is most likely going to honk
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I took over twenty years to actually start writing 'for real' because I had this incredibly naive idea that you were supposed to sit down and churn out a masterpiece in one go. :eek: Imagine the paralyzingly pressure!

Once I started reading author blogs on the internet I realized that the process was a long one, and that it was more than normal and okay to have a bad first draft or a trunked novel or two... The pressure was suddenly off and I started to have fun with the whole thing. :)
 
Yup. I recently started on my third and it just felt all kinds of wrong. The difference with this one is that it's a direct prequel to what I released in January, so the audience is already familiar with these characters. I just wasn't feeling some of the scenes. I've since gone back to polishing book 2.

The benefit of finally getting the damn thing written, however, is that you have a concrete version of what will happen. And with that comes a greater ability to foreshadow and make all sorts of meaningful connections throughout the story.
 
Strangely, because I support the idea that it is ok for first drafts to be awful, I don't really write in drafts, it is a much more random and complex process...
I will often perfect a paragraph, for no other reason than 'because I feel like it', and that can be followed by 'add somestuff here, like a quick argument or something'. Then go and write the second to last chapter. Go back, fill in some blanks, then edit the second to last chapter. Then go to the middle and write 20,000 words all in chronological order. There is no complete 'first draft' that I then rewrite into a second draft and so on...

Does anyone else work like this?
 
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