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Margaret
talks about the painstaking process of re-writing first drafts.
Writing the first draft of a novel
is the easy part! Did I really say that? Nothing in writing is easy. If readers
think we sit down and write from beginning to end without any head-banging then
they’re mistaken. Even first drafts are hard. But the really hard part is going
through it and finding out our carefully written words do not entirely convey
what it is we’re trying to say. So we work on it some more. We re-write, we
re-write again, and maybe again, until finally we are happy.
So what do we feel when we read through our first draft? Firstly that it’s not the masterpiece we
thought it was. Secondly, it’s going to
need a lot of hard work. And maybe even a complete re-write. But do we feel
downhearted? Maybe initially, but we know our first drafts are no more than
that. They’re the first blocks in the building process.
By this time we know our characters
inside out, how they react, how they think, and although it’s time-consuming (and
maybe we’d much rather be working on another book, it’s an essential part of
story-telling. The hard part is that each altered scene or conversation has a
knock-on effect and before we know it we’re re-writing whole chapters.
My stories are short by some
standards, hovering around the fifty thousand word mark, so my headaches cannot
possibly be as bad as authors who write much longer books. Not that it seems
like that to me at the time. But at least I know at the end of the day that my
book is the best I can make it.
Agree with you 100%, Margaret! I still agonise over my first draft even though I know that once it is 'finished', I will then edit and re-edit it! With the first draft I alternate between 'carving granite with a spoon' and 'knitting with fog', which is probably why I enjoy the editing process far more than writing the first draft!
ReplyDeleteI love your expressions, Paula. Whenever I'm writing now I shall think of those words!
DeleteEverything about the entire process is painstaking, Margaret. You're right. Sometimes I enjoy the writing more, other times the editing. And sometimes, unfortunately, I don't know my characters inside and out until a few drafts go by. But I can't stop, so I continue.
ReplyDeleteWriting is like that, isn't it Jennifer. We can't stop, no matter how many times we have to edit. It's part of the joy of writing. It's in our blood - it has to be or we wouldn't put ourselves through it.
ReplyDeletePainstaking pleasure, the crafting of words into stories.
ReplyDeletePainstaking Pleasure! I like that. I shall write it down and pin it up in front of me so that I can see it when I'm writing.
DeleteI agree that second (and third and fourth...) drafts are sometimes harder than the first ones. The part I like about going back and doing rewrites is that I really do feel like I know my characters better at that point and can really dig deep and present their story in a fitting way.
ReplyDeleteDebra, I find the first draft the hardest - by a long way! Once I've done that, I breathe a sigh of relief and then enjoy the whole rewriting, editing, polishing process.
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