Here is a great article from a very interesting website (lots of good advice here) on the subject of first drafts and the importance of getting the first draft done before doing any editing.

I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are about this. Do you push on to the end, or can't you resist the odd tinker?

Oooh, I imediately love anyone who quotes Terry Pratchett!

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Yes, I think she's right. I only recently twigged the bit about 'writing oneself into the chapter; the novel' which means it is imperative to learn how to edit this bumph back out in the second draft. Pratchett says of his editing: The first draft is like a hunter laying his traps, the editing is the hunter going back to brush out his tracks.

Fear of failure is also true but one mustn't underestimate the sense of achievement at completing a first draft.
I'm a fiddler. I like each scene to be prefect before I move on to the next one, and i'll come back to it over several days and re-read and fiddle, so at the end of the first draft it's mainly a matter of shuffling scenes and deleting bits, and doing a ittle gap filling, rather than rewriting.


- NaomiM

This was really interesting and something I should do. I'm like you Naomi, I'm a terrible fiddler. It drives me nuts because I'll waste an hour and realise I haven't actually written anything new.
I think I'm going to try this afternoon to resist the urge to fiddle and see how it goes, wish me luck.
Shelly

Here's wishing you luck shelly, but fiddling is like an itch and I suspect you'll soon get the urge to scratch.

I'm a firm believer in pushing onwards.
Getting that first draft down is imperative otherwise there's a danger of it becomming just another unfinished project in your saved folders.
Once it's done you can tinker, play, change dramatically if you feel it needs it.
HB x

I think in part it depends on what sort of a writer you are. I start with the bare bones and fiddle for days adding the layers. Others start with everything including the kitchen sink and can come back and pare it down. And there are degrees between the two points. So if you're fiddling because you're adding layers then that isn't a waste of writing time.

Yes, I'm a first-draft-get-it-all-down writer, but then, perhaps unusually, it still comes out too boney, and most revising isn't about cutting but about putting flesh (not fat, I hope) on the bones.

Maybe that's why I'm incapable of writing a short novel.

Emma

I try to press on, but if I'm honest I can't resist chopping up the last bit before I get on with the new bit. I think it is procrastination, in my case anyway.

I tend to write small in the first draft too. In some ways I prefer revising and editing; not having to worry about the story so much but being able to concentrate on adding colour and detail.

I have to confess to a tendency to fiddle as well. I tend to sit down and read through my previous day's writing and tweak it if necessary - it generally is! By then I find myself fully engaged with the plot and can just leap into fresh writing again. Well, that's the theory.

Not fiddling is one of the big reasons I write first drafts longhand - makes it much less easy to keep moving commas around.

Emma

I push on from start to finish. Editing is strictly for afterwards. It's so much easier working with the whole cloth!

JB

I used to pause and polish every chapter/section - get it as good as I could before I moved on - the latest is just a splurge draft and doesn't even have chapters - yet

Sarah

I love the first draft, just pushing on, just seeing where it leads me - but then I have to do loads of refining and cutting and pasting afterwards... but that's more like working on a jigsaw puzzle. And finally, the polishing and editing 'proper' which can get a bit less exciting and much more like hard work.

What a wonderful article.

I edit a little as i go along, i go back to alter things as i go along, but it doesn't stop me finishing - or having to do lots of edits once the whole thing is complete.

I think it's most important to push on at that 'God, this is crap' moment we all get (me usually at 30,000 words).

I'm like Emma in that the first draft is spare - so not so much an edit is needed as addition.
One of the other reasons I dislike tinkering as I go along is that often this need r-hauls and it's less depressing if everyhting is still fairly loose.
HB X