Rough Drafts

[queenoftheskies]

I wonder if anyone would care to share their love/hate relationship with their rough drafts?

Do you feel the same way with each novel you write? Or does it vary with each project?

Do you have peaks and valleys? Are you positive the entire way through? Do you find that you wrestle with sections?

How do you feel when you're finished?

How long do you let it sit before you edit? (Do you let it sit before you edit?)

How do you feel when you come back to it? The same way you did when you completed it? Or do you see it through different eyes?


The process is pretty much the same for me with each novel, though it's becoming less up and down as I get a better handle on plotting/mapping both before and while I write. I feel more in control, while still allowing my creativity to run free. :)

I do have peaks and valleys. Some writing is very easy...so easy it frightens me sometimes. Other days, the writing is not so easy...sometimes, difficult. Sometimes, it might be the writing/novel itself. Many times, the difficulty comes from within me...my reactions to the real world and outside influences affect my writing.

Finishing is a BIG high for me. The week leading up to the finish varies. Sometimes, it's a struggle from the perspective of wondering whether what I've written is decent or not...and I have to constantly remind myself EVERYTHING CAN BE FIXED LATER. Sometimes, it's one complete high...pushing to get that baby finished and then exploding across the finish line with a CHEER and an adrenaline rush. :)

I don't know about the coming back to it part yet. I have a finished novel from last year that I haven't edited except for off and on because I'm concentrating more on what I'm writing now.

Haven't split/edited Ancient Secrets yet because I want my mind uncluttered and I want to see it with fresh eyes. I might start that during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, when I have time off. :)

I look back at sections I have in WIP's, though, and have mixed reactions. Sometimes, I go, "Oh, god, lots of editing needed here." Sometimes, I go, "Wow, did I really write that? It's not half bad."

I guess that's a good thing. When I leave a rough draft, I know it's rough. I know it needs work. I know it's only the building blocks for a future novel...whatever it'll be when it's polished and complete. But, finding those little gems that sparkle a little already gives me that hope I need to believe that, some day, it will be polished and will shine at least a little more.

Comments

[kimberlychapman.livejournal.com]

My writing is nowhere near as structured and organized as yours. In general, it goes like this: I get an idea. I plop down the basics of the idea. Then, it either takes over my entire brain or not. If not, it remains saved on the computer (and backed up to disk) possibly forever, but little to nothing ever happens to it (at least at this stage of my life).

If it does take over my brain (which is what has happened with the Colony books, and what happened with my first novel), I become obsessed. I write in every spare moment. The characters chatter in my head all the time, often to the detriment of other things I'm trying to do (I must force myself to concentrate on driving). Plot points come together faster than I can write them down.

So I keep plopping the little bits down in very rough form (usually point form, in fact, with total disregard to spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.).

Then, once I've got the major basics down, I start at the beginning and knit it all together, filling in with new scenes where necessary. I never allow myself to skip ahead because I know if I do, I'll never return to fix a gap. This sometimes produces short-term blockages, but usually my obsession feeds me something, or Corran will help with inspiration.

When that's done, I have a solid, properly-formed, thorough first draft. I've never hated the first draft, nor particularly loved it, although I do get a sense of ahhhhhhhhhhhhh when I finish it.

Then I read over that draft, looking out particularly for things early on that no longer logically match later stuff, like if a character has developed in such a way that now I can see they'd never do X that they did early on. I correct for too many changes in POV, I add/delete foreshadowing if necessary, I clean up awkward stuff (this is the point where I begin to read some stuff out loud to ensure it flows), and do all of that editing. The book usually grows a bit, but I do try to tighten up the writing as I go (since I write tomes).

I know that very first draft has errors. I expect them. I often know as I'm reaching the end that I'm conflicting with something earlier, but I don't always interrupt myself to go back and fix it right that second. I anticipate having to do major work to it, so it's no biggie when it does need work.

But it's also not uncommon for me to be very pleased with certain parts and *know* that the wording there is very powerful, that this part is a funny gag, that the way I've woven this plot thread is really going to grab at the reader.

Then I let others see the second draft, Corran first and my favourite editor second. I take their comments and criticsms seriously, even if I don't make every change requested.

Then I go back through for a third draft, and then print that off for test readers.

Then I make changes based on what the test readers say, go through it one more time (usually by this point I've been away from it for a few weeks so it's easier to find errors), and the fourth draft would be what I'd submit to a publisher.

With my first novel, my editor and I went through it once again to generate a fifth draft, then one last time for final polishing and it was the sixth draft that went to press.

Hope this lengthy response helps. :)

[fancythat2.livejournal.com]

It was wonderful! Thanks.

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

I've only actually finished one novel-length draft, if you don't count some long fan fic which I don't, because they basically were printed as first drafts except for proofing and basic editing. However, the WIR is a rather nice draft, rather polished early on because I'm a rolling reviser. I know the gaps are there, mostly for descriptions and some science stuff I didn't want to stop and make sure was accurate. I figured I could do that during revision.

I was very pleased with the draft and so very happy to get to The End after 2 years writing it and 2 major revisions before it reached The End.

Since I'm now waiting on my collaborator (she has until January) to see if she'll be able to handle the rewrite, I'm a bit in limbo as to what's next. If she edits/rewrites, I'll move on to the sequel. If she can't, I'll have to revise the WIR first so I can have it beta read, then submit it.

Of course, what I think about the draft won't matter til I start submitting it and seeing what an editor will think of what I end up with.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

I neither love nor hate first drafts. They are what they are, and it's a given that they are going to be changed. It's the final drafts that make me tense.

[roseyniswitrin.livejournal.com]

For me, drafts are different with each project. I tend to write a fairly clean copy, so I do a lot of editing as I go. But since I've only completed one novel, I'm not sure how my editing process is...I seem to be a little fearful of trying to rewrite that particular novel. I know it has some structural problems, and I can't decide if I like the ending or not, so that has been holding me back from really digging into the re-reading and editing process.

With the new project I'm working on now (which is, apparently, going to be a novel), I have mostly been writing straight through and not doing much editing as I go. This is actually good for me, because when I write, I tend to get stuck tinkering too much with scenes I've already written and then never move forward to finish the story. I seem to actually be moving forward on this project, which is a big plus to me.

I would expect that when this is finished, I will feel a sense of accomplishment. I would also imagine that I will put the draft away for at least a few weeks before I try to begin the rewriting phase, so that I can have a bit of a fresher perspective when I pick it up again.

:-)

[stevenagy.livejournal.com]

I hate them but I used to hate rewriting. Now I recognize it's all part of the process.

Personally, I like the later stages of the rough draft, when things start to come together.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

i'm only just now writing my first novel-length draft. as far as my short stories have gone, i've loved working on later drafts. i have no "system" but how it's ended up working every single time is this:

the first draft gets written in bits of disjointed pieces, longhand. i like this draft because it's total play with the words. the next draft, as i type it all in, i cut out about a third of what i've written and i double what remains. it's only after that point that i let anyone read it. after two or three more "editorial" passes, i rewrite the whole thing from start to finish rather than cutting and pasting. i suspect this last bit won't work out so well on this novel-length manuscript i've got in the early works. ;)

[susanwrites.livejournal.com]

Hate is a strong word. I like the IDEA of a rough draft but getting the words down is painful, every time. I love revision much more.

[wrathchylde.livejournal.com]

Everything I've written so far has been born through a different process. Most writers hone their skills through various pieces of work. Me, I did most of my learning on a series. I'd do an edit, write part of one of the sequels, do another edit, go further on the sequels. I then put it aside for about 5 years and wrote a separate trilogy, which started by writing the ending first to.

I've found recently that I can't force a rough draft out of myself and get a lot of work; it's either multiple pages of something mediocre, or a few good paragraphs. I've developed a habit of doing many, many edits. Now I work on several different things at a time.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

Well, not having finished a novel yet, I can't offer a lot of practical thoughts on the subject. I have two in the works and the feeling for both is very, very different. There are some similarities in that I can relate to the characters and that there are very dark undertones, but they're different projects and though I love them both, there are differences.

Rough drafts are tough in that inevitably, I come to a point where I derail myself. I start poking holes in the plot, criticizing characters, picking this and that apart to the point that I grind myself to a halt. Thus, the stagnation on my two current novels. Eventually, I will go back to them because I do love the stories and I love the characters.

Right now, I'm working on some short stories. I've finished one and am doing some editing on it. As I edit, I find some gaping holes and I hear the doubts nagging in my head. Is this good enough? Is this believable? Will this hold a reader's attention? Things like that. So forcing myself to push through the crap is tough. But I do see light at the end of the tunnel and the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish a story is a rush like little else.

I don't ever really worry about criticism from others, because a) I know they are trying to help me and b) no criticism I could ever get from anybody else would ever be nearly as harsh as the criticism as I lay on myself.

Peaks and valleys are natural. They should be expected. It's pushing through those things that's important. We're not ever going to like every single word we put down, but the parts we hate aren't ever as bad as we somehow imagine them to be in our minds.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I don't write fiction, but I'm not sure that matters.

My first drafts are shambles--very stream of consciousness, written in blocked sections but mostly without worrying too much about grammar, and ignoring entirely any secondary sources. At this point my aim is to say what I want to say about the objects under discussion. There are always little notes in bold [expand here], [need evidence], [ref that article I saw in May] etc.

I've learned that it is is quite common for me to get lost in my own work. Frequently, about two thirds in I realise it's going wrong and have to start again (this is on a chapter by chapter basis). But I have to write that two thirds to work out how it must go, so I've stopped seeing it as a waste of time.

Then I put it one side for at least a week.

Second draft is for argument. Getting it smooth, getting it right. At this point I frequently start to like what I'm writing. This draft is all argument and stucture.

Then I leave it for a month and do something else (usually a different project, I tend to have two or three on the go at a time).

The third stage is the one I like best. By this time I have huge lists of things I want to read. I've collected references wherever or whenver I've seem or heard something interesting, but I won't have read most of it. I read it all in an orgy of a month or two, and then begin to edit the book. To do this I print it all out in an A4 layout on A3 paper (so there is a blank A4 part to the right) and start adding in references and other people's substantiating or contradictory arguments. This is the only time in the process when I ever use a pen.

Then I add it all in, and wait another week. Then I repeat the going through to make sure it all fits and flows.

Then I cut the entire manuscript by around a tenth. I hate this bit, but many years ago, the best chapter of my MPhil turned out to be the one I'd had to type in from scratch after a computer crash. The excercise taught me how much redundancy I add in through hesitation and qualification.