Confession time: the book I am currently in the middle of edits for is not my first completed novel. I had a full draft of my own retelling of Beauty and the Beast as far back as fifth grade.
Want to know what happened to it? I erased it. All of it.
To this day, my mother is still upset with me.
Thing is, when I was just starting out as a writer, I suffered from the delusion that every book came out perfect the first time through. It took years and several more erasings for me to finally take to heart that old adage: writing is rewriting. And even now, I still struggle with it. There’s something so promising in a clean slate that it’s hard for me to resist the temptation to erase and start over again.
But the truth about writing is that first drafts are meant to be utter crap. In fact, they’re basically practice for the second draft, which is practice for the third draft, etc., etc.
The book I’ve got going through edits right now is draft nine, and that’s not including the first few attempts I gave up on and erased.
It’s the issue that made this particular book ten years in the making. I’m holding out hope that the sequel I’ve started will take significantly less time. Currently it is in its first draft, and this time around I’m forcing myself to cringe through the crap and keep going.
So, for those of us who struggle with accepting the trials of a first draft: why do we suffer through them?
Well, the purpose of the first draft is to tell you your story. For instance, with my sequel so far, a lot of it is being written blind. Sure, I know the general plot and what I expect from it, but it’s the little details that are so far escaping me. My characters are not quite themselves (though granted, they’ve changed since book one; part of my journey is figuring out who they are now); scenes are scattered haphazardly around each other, and the future of my world is still uncertain.
Draft one is the process of throwing the puzzle pieces onto the table; the drafts that follow are the process of putting them together. And in the words of Neil Gaiman, subsequent drafts are meant to make it “look like you knew what you were doing all along.”
So, fellow writers, do not be discouraged by crappy first drafts. Believe me, we’ve all been there. Resist the urge to erase and start over again. Just remember this: finished is better than good. All the necessary cleanup will come later, but it won’t do you any good if there is nothing there to clean.
Night Owls, where are you with your own Works In Progress? Have you ever made the mistake of erasing and starting over?
Dear C.M.,
It sounds like over the years you’ve learned the value of the first draft – – and the value of not erasing it! Good for you! I frequently remind my kindergarten students that “practice ” is very important; that’s why we do things over and over and over again. Many of them get very frustrated when they don’t form their letters or cut on a line perfectly the first time. I tell them that I’ve been practicing for many years, and I still don’t do things perfectly. But I have to learn to be okay with that, and so do they, and it sounds like you’re remembering that too. Hooray for the value of practice and rewrites! It helps your brain to grow!
Thank you, Care Bear 🙂 I’m so glad you’re teaching your students that not everything has to be perfect the first time around. It is very important to let children know from a young age that mistakes are normal, and no one is born knowing exactly how to do everything. That’s the whole point of learning: to get better at the things we don’t know! You are a wonderful teacher to give your students this important lesson 😀