Is it a waste of time to write a perfect first draft?

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KloKandall

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Hey guys, I'm an aspiring writer. Right now I'm working with my current novel around 94k words in 3 months. It's painful progress but I like it. Sometimes I always wondering, is it possible to write a perfect first draft, or it just a waste of time? If it was a waste of time, what exactly writing a first draft? Does that mean all of the first drafts will be bad?

Thank you to those who answer my question.
 
Hemingway said that all first drafts are crap. (Being who he was, he didn't use the word crap.) The first draft is there to get down your ideas. Revisions are for honing the work to perfection. So, ideas first, perfection second. Good luck with it.
 
Not quite in the same league, but Mickey Spillane was reputed to only write one draft of his books, his first Mike Hammer book was written in three weeks. Jack Kerouac's On The Road was also written in three weeks on a single roll of paper he made by taping pages together so he didn't have to interrupt his flow by having to stop typing to change paper, he would have loved modern word processing software.
 
KloKandall said:
Does that mean all of the first drafts will be bad?
Click to expand...
It is merely a recognition that there will never be a perfect written piece; every piece of writing can be improved. Congratulations on having written 94K words -- that is something most people in this world never accomplish. Just be open to learning new things about the writing craft. This, of course, means that things written prior to that learning did not benefit from it and are therefore open to improvement.
 
Is there such a thing as a perfect first draft for the vast majority of authors? You may find that as your characters develop further in the novel that you want to go back and make adjustments, such as adding foreshadowing or extra scenes that help to explain developments of your character.
 
My first drafts are bad by design. That is I'm just trying to get words on the page. If I can't think of a good way to say something I basically just write notes directly into the prose. When I learned to embrace that, writing became easier.
Writing is a process. Most time is spent on revision. I like to think of it as molding clay. But the first draft is just making the clay. Once I have something to work with, I can shape it into something better. I find I get more words down when I don't worry about sounding good because I know it will come later. That's just my process. The down side is I never know when to stop revising.
 
Terry Pratchett once said that, "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story."

The first draft is usually where the writer gets the down the main thrust of the story that they're trying to tell. I don't think this means that the first draft will always be bad. The first draft can be a rough sketch of how the novel, when fully revised, will play out; or, it will be a close cousin to what the final novel (or story) eventually looks like. With experience, a writer can get closer and closer to a polished work on the first pass (it depends on the writer and their process).

Writing a first draft is not a waste of time because you need to get those ideas down on paper where you can actually see them and begin to see how they work together. That being said, I would advise that trying to write a "perfect" first draft may be a waste of energy--if you are trying to make it "perfect" the first time through you may end up stressing yourself out because it isn't exactly how you envisioned it. Just focus on getting the words out (which it already sounds like you've done most of that, so congrats) then worry later about making it the best version of the story you envisioned when you first set out to write it.
 
I think it's a personal thing.
I've heard several of even my favorite authors say that they don't edit.
However, some of those also say they wouldn't self publish because they need those editors to polish their work.

I've listened to at least one 'arrogant' who said they never edit...everything is right the first time.

I do know that if you are incapable of a sustained flow of perfection for eternity that eventually trying to make perfection the first time is going to bite you in the keister.

Do you want to see the scars?
 
I would love to write a perfect first draft. Each time I start out with a novel I go through thinking 'maybe if I take more care with this draft it'll save me time later'. But so far I've always needed a second draft regardless and if I spend too long trying to perfect things, often I just get stuck. Some progress is better than no progress...
 
KloKandall said:
Hey guys, I'm an aspiring writer. Right now I'm working with my current novel around 94k words in 3 months. It's painful progress but I like it. Sometimes I always wondering, is it possible to write a perfect first draft, or it just a waste of time? If it was a waste of time, what exactly writing a first draft? Does that mean all of the first drafts will be bad?

Thank you to those who answer my question.
Click to expand...

The way to tell if your first draft has problems is to set it aside for a week, then read it again. Chances are that you will see a lot of typos that you missed. Also, while it is set aside you might realize there are things you should add or change.

A first draft cannot be "a waste of time." It is necessary to write a first draft, even if you end up writing many more drafts. The process of letting the first draft age for awhile is part of the process. Normally, you still think about the book while it is set aside, and you think of ways you can make it better. Then, when you've written the second draft, you set that aside for awhile.

Writing a "first draft" has a different meaning when writing on a computer. When typing a manuscript you cannot easily make changes. When typing on a computer, if you are working on chapter ten and realize there is something you should add to chapter four, you can just go back and do it. And then you continue with chapter ten, and you don't print anything until you are done -- if then. So, a "first draft" could actually be a "twentieth draft" if you count all the times you went back and changed or fixed things.
 
I tend to write "clean" first drafts (by which I mean they don't change much until they meet an editor in a dark alley), but they are still usually first drafts. The first few chapters often get hacked about while I'm writing the later chapters. I do however have three separate unfinished first drafts for one particular project that I cannot seem to write properly....
 
I also write clean first drafts and I'm pretty good at having stories come together naturally without planning. Two of my (traditionally!) published novels are first drafts - one of which was a NaNoWriMo story. So no, not a waste of time.
 
I know there's some contemporary authors that write very good first drafts (according to them). Peter McLean's first draft is mostly it. Fonda Lee writes slow and has it pretty much down by the second - good article about it here Fonda Lee: Jade City, An Anti-Nanowrimo Case Study – Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds

Everyone is different. Some can churn out first drafts quick and then polish it up great. Others do best polishing as they go, getting the first draft as good as possible, and not needing to do much more.

So yes, you could be one of those people who don't need to revise their first draft much.

If you aren't though, there's not a lot wrong with that. Using a first draft to get your ideas out there so you can spot the flaws and what can be improved is very common.
 
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