How much to try to fix things in a first draft?

[Steve Harrison]

If done woodenly, then yeah--but also, anything done poorly is pretty meh.

If the tension in the character is real and visceral? If we know they're going to do the thing we know they'll do but the struggle--the teacup rage and anger and resentment and recrimination--the struggle moves them 2.3% in a new direction? That's the delicious bit. Both because it's the struggle and also, if they moved 2.3% this time... what happens next time?

Struggle ==> Tension ==> Choice ==> Future Consequences = GIMME

So true. I had a main character in my first novel who was driven by resentment and the quest for revenge to such an extent he was completely blinkered, even when it was obvious it would be self-destructive or harm others. I kept giving him options to escape and the chance of redemption, but he wasn't having any of it.

He was a very frustrating character to write, as he just would not bend an inch, but I think giving him those choices, which he knowingly rejected, created a great deal of tension for readers (and me!) and made up for him not having a traditional character arc. It's the one time I've had clear insight into a battle between me and my subconscious in real time. And I'm glad my subconscious won out!

 

[Swank]

I guess I'm just not a big believer in character motivation as the mover of action. I feel like the story takes place in the frisson between what the characters do because of the events and their immediate reactions, and what is happening inside the characters that causes them to surprise us later on.

 

[ColGray]

Totally fair: that's why cars come in different colors.

With Fiberglass Cyborg's original question of stopping to edit or pushing onward -- I tend to move forward with small things and know that i HAVE to halt and go back with big things.

Part of what derailed me during NaNoWriMo was realizing my opening was too limited and too cutesy and that it failed to setup (with both the world and character motivation) the story i'd found. I realized that around 25k words and decided, NaNoWriMo is all about sprinting and putting words down and then going back to edit later. I'll push on!

Woof: what a mistake.

At the time I thought the sprint writing is what burned me out. At this point, I think the sprint + added stress of a poor foundation did it. I went back to read everything in Feb and it's just a disjointed, awful mess. The first 10k words needs to be completely reworked. 10-25k needs serious shifting. 25k-35k is great. 35k-50k is alternately great and written for a different book and building on a timeline of events. The whole thing is just a jumble and I wish i had stopped, reworked the opening and then had a solid foundation to move forward.

With my current WIP, I wrote the opening 10k words, then rewrote it. Then again. Then again. I went forward to 20k and found a better, more concise telling of the inciting incident and inserted that earlier. 35k in, I haven't had to go back and rework anything in the first 10k (though I've added/removed flourishes and little details). It's been a much better process (for me)

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I don't really do the whole 'draft' thing. I'm constantly revising as I go so, by the time I get to editing, my 'first draft' is my 'final draft' and has already gone through several revisions. If I know something needs to be fixed or altered in anyway and don't immediately go back and make that adjustment or addition then 1) it's going to bug the living daylights out of me and I won't be able to focus moving forward until I take care of it and 2) I run the risk of forgetting what I wanted to adjust so it's best that I just do it then anyway.

 

[tinkerdan]

I managed to get to the point where the writing would stop when I realized there were issues in the writing and that things didn't go well until I started back through to figure out just how far awry things were and what it would take to fix it and there were even some times I was wrong--things were just fine, but without checking once that feeling started sinking in the only option was to go back and make things right.

Although, I suppose, you could go back and leave yourself a note: Use some hand-wavium here and no one will notice!

 

[ColGray]

Although, I suppose, you could go back and leave yourself a note: Use some hand-wavium here and no one will notice!

Dropping notes and comments in the WIP MS for minor bits is helpful. Especially when it's like, cursor blinking.... blinking... blinking...

 

[The Big Peat]

My current process is to try and write one part of the story to a very high, very fixed level, so I know I can do justice to the idea...

... and then and just get the bloody mess out so I can actually work out what the story plan is.

So I fix everything in the first part, and then try to ignore my impulse to do so from there on.

 

[Renè Williams]

Copy editing would be bad, but editing character interactions and plot beats is a necessary evil. I almost always change something when I go back and read what I wrote last because I tend to get over zealous with my writing as i wind down my writing time and often go too hard, too fast and end up forgetting about nuance for a line here and a line there, haha.

 

[sknox]

When a scene or a whole chapter or two isn't right, I try to figure out why. Is it really that the characters are wrong, or the plot has gone awry? Here's the statement from the OP:

>The characters' behaviour does not ring true and they would not have come to the decisions I need them to based on what happened here.

Or is it possible that I simply have not written it well? Or that I don't yet have a good hold on these characters? Is it possible that these characters have come to decisions I can work with, even if it isn't what I had in mind?

In other words, is it 1) the story is ok, but I need to write it better; 2) the story is in an unexpected place but I can work with it; or 3) this really is both wrong and not salvageable. I bring this up because there are plenty of times when I've thought the current story is a mess, probably beyond rescue, and it turns out I was just becoming discouraged. In still other words, I'm not sure I'm the best judge of what's working. Right now my strategy is, when it's not working, just keep working.

That doesn't always mean just plow ahead. Often, I'll plow sideways. I write other versions of the same scene. I write scenes with a character behaving differently, or maybe not even being there. I have a whole folder in every project called Fragments. It's not unusually for the word count to be a third of the final draft's total. I've stopped thinking of that as wasted effort and now choose to called it "exploration." *snort* *chortle*

Anyway, maybe entertain the possibility that you aren't on the wrong track after all, you just need to look at it differently.

 

[Renè Williams]

It's not unusually for the word count to be a third of the final draft's total. I've stopped thinking of that as wasted effort and now choose to called it "exploration." *snort* *chortle*

Edison didn't find one way to make a lightbulb, he found 2000 interesting ways not to.

 

[Mans]

I think a perfect draft is better than correcting it later because you may forget some cases that should be changed later, or you may exit from the state you were in when you were writing the draft.

 

[TheAfter]

When you can tell something is obviously not right during a first draft, where exactly do you draw the line between "I have to go back and sort this out right now" and "Keep going, that's what the second draft is for"?

Great question. My limited experience is that it depends on whether or not you think you know how to fix it. Often times I have to ponder on it for a bit, and if that's the case I try to just keep writing. I think the key is to not allow it to paralyze your process.