I believe the reason why 1st drafts are referred to as 'crap' or 'vomit' drafts is to emphasize that they are not the finished book, but the beginning. Experienced writers who have gone through the editing process (developmental, prose, spag, etc) on previous works...may...produce a 1st draft that's closer to a final piece than a new writer. I call my 1st draft the 'story' draft. It was a great relief when I stopped trying to write a finished book, and just focused on getting the story from my head onto paper. Then I did a development draft (plot line, character archs, sub-archs, etc). Now I'm on the 3rd draft, which I call the 'prose' draft that I intend for people to read. Since writing for me is as much of an educational process as it is production, breaking it down into draft stages devoted to one of those processes has really helped. But everyone has their process, to state the obvious.
I guess I just don't understand the need to break it down like that. It's all part of writing. And it's all part of my first drafts. I could never work the way you do. I always try to write my best. The story, characters and prose are part of that. I guess I don't understand why you wouldn't want to focus on all the parts that make up a story while getting it down. I get that everyone works differently, but I don't understand the point of not giving it your all from the start. Like I said, I can't work with something that's a mess. I rather trash it and start again.
Imagine cooking by peeling and cutting and cooking each slice of carrot before peeling and cutting and cooking the next slice. Some things are sequential. For some people, writing is one of those things.
I couldn't even say when a draft is a 'first draft' because, like @deadrats , the time when I write the final words, a story has had multiple read-throughs. Every day when I open up my story-document I read through what I did and edit it a bit, not extensively, not like you'd dub it an 'edit', but I correct things that jump out at me that I could have done better. I read through it to capture the 'voice' of the piece, to get into the head of the main character and write further coherently and in a matching voice. I'm enough of a linear writer to not jump around in writing, but not enough to be able to work with the process @Stormburn laid out.
I totally reject your framing. It's not an issue of effort, it's an issue of efficiency. If an artist begins a piece by sketching out their rough shapes first, and waits to add shading and detail at a later stage (and many do), that doesn't mean they aren't "giving it their all" at every stage of their process.
I think I've actually moved closer to the "first draft is a mess" approach in my recent writing. Not that I don't try to make it good, but more that I accept it will change, and be refined, and that's okay. I don't need to fully agonize over ever plot point, I just need to keep things moving in a reasonable direction. There may well be a difference between novels and short stories. I think if I were writing a short, it'd make more sense to really perfect every element before moving on, because the full version won't be that long, so there's less risk of losing momentum. But for a novel? If things are flowing, I say let them flow. There's time for redirects later.
Because compared to the final draft it is/doesn't. For us mere mortals, writing the first draft is a small part of the process of making a novel and there's no point getting bent out of shape about not having everything perfect on the first pass. Starting with low expectations is a good way to limit disappointment.
I couldn't do that with my novel in one draft. For example I had a reveal that happens. In the story draft I wrote that reveal three times. I didn't go back and rewrite. I just wrote the story as it flowed. It was in the developmental draft that I picked the perfect place for the reveal to occur. The scene break down I did in the developmental draft was priceless. I broke down each scene checking for PoV, Purpose, etc. I discovered so many problems and fixed them without having to do major rewrites. This whole process has been a great learning experience. It took me several years of writing that included 2 books, and several short stories for me to have a real grasp of what I didn't know. Now I'm really starting to learn. My goal is to learn with every writing project that I embark on. Not just to write a book, but to come out of that book an improved writer who can write a better book. I was going to use this analogy, but I'll just use yours. Thanks @Bone2pick . As an artist I believed that time should be spent improving something, not fixing something. In commercial art with a deadline, an artist would have just enough time to do one or the other. I'm striving to develop a routine that will maximize my improvement time while minimizing the fixing. It's all about the writer finding the process that works for them. Godspeed!
I like @Stormburn's approach, while like @deadrats, I try to make the first draft as perfect as possible. But the priority of the first draft is to get the story down, get to the end. Editing is the necessary evil, and @Stormburn has a good checklist for things to do in that 2nd edit. I have a lot less confidence with the sequel to E&D because my characters are scattered all over the place, pursuing independent paths that will take them together. As a result I have to jump from character to character, each with their own thread. On the good side, this lends itself to non-sequential writing, as long as I make sure I date each chapter with its story date, so the timeline holds together. I feel right now that it is disjointed, but I think the important point is to get to the finish line, then go back and smooth it out, give some characters more time in their particular thread, take some out, spend more time on the visualization. I find that going back and doing constant revision before moving on to the next chapter kills my creative juices, because that is critical.
As a writer working on my first novel, I have put a lot of effort into my first draft, but I also realize the first draft is not meant to be perfect. As I write, I'm very aware that certain scenes may be changed or deleted, certain characters may be taken out, whole chapters might be switched. And the fact that the genre is historical fiction lends itself to a very flexible story in terms of making things historically accurate later. There is too much up the in the air for me to make my first draft pretty, or even good. So while I've seen a lot of sparkling gems during writing my first draft, I don't do a whole to uncover them just yet.
I like your approach, @Writeorflight. Depending on your interactions with actual events, you might try building a timeline of the dates, locations and actual personalities of those events that your characters will need to interact with, to help keep your plot on a reasonable timeline. I am doing that with the sequel to E&D dealing with the Roman invasion of Mesopotamia, and @K McIntyre is doing that with her WW2 story But yeah, get the story down and don't second guess yourself on the first draft.
Definitely! Early on in the process of writing, I began compiling all the facts that I read into a chronological timeline, and it has helped immensely in keeping my story on track, and figuring out where I want to go next with it. And I'm so fortunate to have found many historical books on the subject that detail the major events so meticulously. And I'm glad to hear you and K are doing the same with your novels! Being a newbie writer, I'm never quite sure if or what I'm doing is the right way to go. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it!
