Help! I need encouragement! I've finished my first draft. Help?

Question

I've just finished it. I wrote it without editing so I could get to the end without faltering.
I look it now, fresh out of the printer. Sure, it's improvable. It can be transformed into something worthwhile. But I've just read it - and it's horrible.
Are first drafts meant to be horrible.
What I mean by horrible is not grammatical, spelling mistakes. I mean the words don't flow. I think it's because I didn't go back and read them out. Is it supposed to work like this in a first draft?
I need encouragement : (

Answer 1

Oh, definitely, Marc. First drafts have the world's permission to be hideous monstrosities!

First things first, congratulations. Give yourself a reward for finishing it, regardless of what you think of it today. Enjoy a meal out, a glass of wine, whatever is celebratory for you.

Now, put that print-out in the drawer and don't look at it, or the computer version, for 60 days. I'm serious.

During that time, you can jot yourself notes about it. Things you know you need to change. Ideas for improvement. More information about characters or plot or setting. But you may not reread or revise your document in any way.

Why? Because in 60 days you will be distanced from it, enough to see not that it's bad (which you already know) but how it's bad. Reading through it at a leisurely pace, your notes and a red pen in hand, you can identify specific changes it needs to improve.

If you're not yet dispassionate about it, almost as if someone else had written it, back in the drawer for another 60 days.

Meanwhile, of course, you begin the *next* novel, roughing out your idea, doing research, etc.

Answer 2

Yo should have seen some of my first drafts! I keep them around to remind me that what I've written now is far superior. I swear it read like a soap opera.

The first draft is meant to be horrible. The important thing is getting all your work written, so that you can have all the ideas on paper.

I actually enjoy editing my work more than writing. Writing is laborious, and your draft sucks when you first write it. Editing takes that work, and carves it down and molds it into something beautiful. You can feel it changing under your fingertips, like clay on a potter's wheel. And then you can see the true beauty of what you have created for a mass of poorly constructed sentences.

This is jus tthe beginning! Things often seem to get worse before they get better. If you've ever let your room go to pieces and then cleaned it, every shelf, every closet corner, every drawer, you'll know that the ple you have to put away keeps growing before you have a space to put them in. Writing is a little like this.
1. Beautiful idea
2. write out beautiful idea and turn it into a word document.
3. idea loses some beauty in the writing
4. clean up the writing
5. you find beautiful idea again
6. clean, clean, clean
7. take a well deserved break.

You are only on step 3, not even having started the step. It does get better. I promise. I think every writer has wondered if their work was worthwhile, especially at first draft stage. I know I have. Don't throw something that could be worthwhile away because you don't like where it is now. Put it in shape, and then decide.

Answer 3

Congratulations--you have a horrible manuscript!
I've been there, too, and I wish I'd followed the advice Maryn Bittner is giving you. Instead, I got into endless rewrites. Oh, I learned a lot, but it was the hard way.

While you are following her advice, get the information I've listed below, and read it. I wish I had when I was starting.

The first two are books you should buy. The last is a great website by a professional editor who gives advice to writers. Read all his articles while you are letting your horrible manuscript 'cool-off'.

I've been through dozens of books and hundreds of websites about writing. These are the best I can recommend to you.

There's another, called "your first novel", but that can wait until you've rewritten your work.

Best wishes,
James

P.S. I've been rejected by one publisher for a sci-fi novel that I've spent years writing, and I'm waiting to hear from the next publisher. If you know an agent who handles sci-fi, let me know.


Edit.....somehow the website I listed didn't show up in the sources.
www.caroclarke.com

Answer 4

Yes of course! It's the first! For all I care it couldd be horrible by the 5th draft, and be better than the first! The first is supposed to be absolutly terrible, so terrible that you want to rip it up! Here, I like to write as well, and I got some advice off of this link. It's from Ally Carter's website, the author of the Gallagher Girls series and some other books about poker... forgot the name of the series.... Oh well, good luck!

One of those links should have something about 1st drafts... but look at them all, it really helped me!

Answer 5

I even have considered lots. rather here. This place is my haven; my sanctuary. This place is this character's 2d domicile, if not the only one. I draw notion from the dark and the shiny, the dim and the clever. BQ: i'm not a happy individual, yet I do write couplets and that i shall provide a attempt. "the kind of joyous component, with leaves of eco-friendly you're a individual who's peachy-prepared!" Take care, Peach. you're a individual who has extra my lighter area lots happiness, and the two one human beings wish the main appropriate for you.

Answer 6

It can be like that. You do more than editing at this stage. It's called revising. You re-read and re-write and improve it. You'll notice holes in your story you need to fill for instance.

Keep at it. You are halfway to a manuscript that you can submit.

Answer 7

Well a lot of answers will be better than mine.
I re wrote my book four times, than got it edited.
This is just the begining.
Keep trying, or buy lottery ticket.
As I said you will get better wnswers than this!