Who left that window open?

[rolanni]

Yep, another post about drafts. If you're not interested in writers fumbling along about What They Do, move on. You Have Been Warned.


I'm not a particularly introspective, analytical kind of writer, so it had never seemed to me that the phrase "first draft" was at all ambiguous. I know that I and my writer-friends point at slightly different things when we say "first draft," pretty much depending on our personal tolerance for Chaos and Mess(tm). But the one thing we've all seemed to agree on is that a first draft is, well, a first draft.

A first draft is where you find out what a Safe World is, for instance, and the ramifications of being raised on one. A first draft is where one of the characters you didn't even think about needing when you were noodling out the shape of the story step up and reveal that they have a Key Bit of Plot. That you also didn't think about needing in the airy, lightsome days of "gee, wouldn't it be cool to write a story about...?" A first draft is where you seed subplots and see which of them grow. A first draft is where you write a scene to See What Happens.

A first draft is...a first draft. Calling it a "first" draft argues for the intended future existence of at least a second draft. Therefore, a first draft is not complete or perfect. The true beginning of the story may show up somewhere around the middle; the ending (if you're the kind of a writer who has to write to the ending No Matter What) is probably wobbly or (if you're the kind of writer who writes until you've written enough that you feel the story is solid enough to revise) non-existent.

For Duainfey (which is a handy example, since I just finished the final draft), I

(1) rearranged the first six chapters to make a crucial bit of timing work

(2) removed a pivotal scene and replaced it with another more in keeping with the heroine's character as it had evolved during two previous drafts

(3) expanded another pivotal scene to up the threat level and make a subsequent choice more believable

(4) tweaked and rewrote manymany sentences and paragraphs in order to sharpen detail, scene, world, and/or character, and made explicit something that had been implicit and which will be Needed in the Second Book, incidentally adding 6,000 words to the final word count

(5) made sure none of the characters had changed their name while I wasn't looking

(6) checked the spelling

(7) put the manuscript into final form

(8) sent it away to our Sainted Editor, and now it's her problem. Briefly.

Because...

...I expect to receive a revision letter. Yes, even after all those drafts, including one named Final Draft, I betcha there's still stuff that needs to be punched up, clarified, or just plain fixed.

So, for any writers who are still with me after all that -- when do you call a first draft done? Do your first drafts have a Beginning, a Middle, and an End? The same Beginning, Middle and End that the final draft rejoices in? How much reworking do you expect to do, between first draft and final?

Inquiring minds...

Comments

Different take

[drammar.livejournal.com]

The writing I do is technical in nature -- training manuals, user documentation and other words of a more boring nature, but the draft process still holds.

I usually have a first draft, and then a couple more before I hit final. And then there are always revisions after that — generally because the client "forgot" to include some really important data before writing started.

And I usually declare a first draft done when I realize that I have spent more time in the last hour deciding what needs to be changed rather than writing new material.

Clearly the folks over on the Fledgling discussion board who were objecting to everything from unresolved plot threads to minor typos have never participated in any extensive writing process. Although I was, I admit, one of those "ooo, shiny" folks at watching your creative process in the beginning.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

See this is why I had an issue with that guy. To me a first draft (esp for things like Fledgling) is what you have when you hit save the first time (or upload it the first time). Sure you might have made edits while writing the chapter, but it doesn't imply going back to past chapters to make edits. That would be the 2nd draft. Of course the only writing I do is on livejournal

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

"First Draft" slithers away every time I try to define it. I'd guess that the closest single point would be when I've typed -END- and go back through to make the beginning and middle match up with the conclusion.

That's when I hand the manuscript over to Wife and start biting fingernails.

multiple First Drafts for one result?

[reedrover]

To feed the inquiring minds and all...

Have you ever written an entire First Draft, gone over and over it for tweaking, and finally taken it to the cutting room floor for an entire rewrite? What do you call the result?

The reason I'm asking is that long ago and far away, I wrote a thesis on mumblemumbleMexicanEconomymumble. I wrote and wrote and cited and wrote. Then I tweaked and twitched the argument all around, trying to square it up. After a particular exhausting all-night effort at reaching a shape I couldn't find, I plopped down on the floor and cut the entire document apart - literally. I took scissors and cut every paragraph or major argument into pieces, and then taped it all back together in a long Santa's list scroll. Using that new flow as signposts along my argument's path, I then rewrote the whole paper from beginning to end. In my opinion, I ended up with two First Drafts for the same final product.

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

A first draft is done for me when I have written a beginning, a middle, and an end. I will have a forest of post-it notes on my scene cards that tell me what needs to be added, rearranged, foreshadowed, trashed, whatever. But I at least have a skelaton of a story.

I have been known to add 200 pages to a final draft when the editor gets her mits on it. It's not done until it hits the stores.

writing

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

My writing is also technical in nature, but I agree with "drammar" that it's still the same process. Rough outline ('thos mine looks more like pseudo-code),first write, edit,reviews and more edits.

Lorna

[mardott.livejournal.com]

In my limited experience: I started with a first draft and wrote for a while, but not straight through to the end. (Although there is an ending in the first draft - I don't write linearly). Because at some point, a couple of characters informed me they WERE NOT (fill in the blank). Which meant a major change, which got saved as a second draft. I seemed to feel most comfortable saving the MS as a new draft whenever the changes seemed important enough. That may be a sign of newbie insecurity. I wanted to have a copy of the story the old way. In case I wanted to go back to it, you see.

At some point, it was DONE, and I sent it off to a friend for editing and review. His comments resulted in a lot fewer commas and a couple more major changes. New draft, but I kept this one, bravely making any changes to that version.

That's the one I sent to agents. But since an agent requested I fill out some sub-plots, I've started another draft.

The other novels-in-progress seem to be working the same way. My mind is a strange place...

But I wonder: is this style of writing a result of word processing? For writers "in the old days," who used typewriters, how were changes and drafts handled?

[lrcutter.livejournal.com]

I've started defining myself as a re-writer, rather than a writer. My first draft is actually a combination of a hand-written draft that gets rewritten as I type it up. The typed copy -- that's the actual first draft, even though, technically, it's the first rewritten draft. Then I generally do two more "drafts" -- though how many times a particular passage has been rewritten, or struck, or moved, or what have you, isn't indicated by the draft number. The first draft is the general overhaul of everything. The second, I print the novel out and read it out loud, but I run into things that require more major overhauls during that one as well. Then it goes to first readers, and then there's another rewrite. Then it goes to the editor. . . and more rewrites. And so it goes.

Hummm...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I triaged my life, and decided to resist the LJ for Theo, so I don't know if I can post on this topic. But to preface: I used to write 95% of a novel in the first pass, thus demonstrating that my subconscious did a heck of a lot of work before I started typing.

Now? Not sure. I feel very uncertain, and move slowly. Still -- I need to at least put SOMETHING in as a placeholder for a scene, and I need to know where we start, and where we end -- and preferably why. (Thus slowness of new Alfreda novel. I know a lot of where it is going -- but the overall why and ending eludes me. The subconscious is being a pill about it.)

I tend to start each writing period by reading the previous day's work and tweaking a word or two. That allows me to roll gracefully into the new work with only a few ripples as opposed to a wake upsetting the raft.