"First draft" taking too long?

- Send your draft to beta readers. They will tell you what's missing.
- Talk about your story in The Sandbox. Someone might suggest a solution to your dilemma.
- Read books, see movies.
- Research.
- Read a book about plotting, for instance, Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell.
- Combine and twist cliches.
- When in doubt, add more conflict.
- Or cut it out! Do you really need that middle?

HourglassMemory said:

I see almost everyone having this overflow of information and just stuffing their first draft with information, and that doesn't happen to me. I often see cases where they cut back lots of paragraphs, and they reduce the work from 150.000 to 100.000. I just find this insane. I wish I could be productive!

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I find I have the opposite problem. My first drafts tend to be sketchy and with the first edit I need to flesh them out more than anything else.

You don’t mention whether you use an outline or not. Personally, I don’t, although sometimes when I’m stuck in a section I’ll ask myself, what do I need to include to move the story from point A to point B, and then make a point form list to help me get going.

You almost sound like you’re editing as you go along. Why not just forget about the editing and get that first draft done? Then, as Mad Queen suggested, send it out to beta readers and they can help you pinpoint what needs to worked on.

Mileage may varies. Some people write slowly and some fast. Some people spent their entire lives writing their first novels. Some people write 3 or 4 in a year. There really is no one answer. Do at your own pace. To me, it's not about the time spent, or whether you spend more time writing the first draft vs. rewrites, or vice versa. The most important thing is the final product.

But like they said: work shop it, beta it. Get feedback. There is a danger for new writers to obsess over their first drafts that they keep on working on them, rewriting and rewriting and changing things and obsess over one sentence for weeks, etc. trying to be "perfect." When you find yourself obsessing over the small things and getting stuck in the first-draft vortex, maybe it's time to move on.

I'm with Lady Cat. I start off with a sentence for each chapter and develop an outline from that, although it's not a lengthy one. I then choose a chapter where I think that I have a clear idea of how it's going to go and write it. Therefore, I don't start at the beginning and work through to the end in chapter order. It worked for NaNo and I would much rather have a quick first draft that I can edit, then a Chapter with nothing in it.
I would love a beta reader but I don't feel I am in a position to ask yet, plus I would prefer one from the Country of the book's intended market which cuts down the possibilities considerably. However, using my own judgement I still think there are improvements to make so I'm busy working at those.

For my first novel, it took me a little over a year for the first draft. Then, I spent six months changing the whole climax.

For my current novel (which I'm very nearly done, on the home stretch now), it's been about two years. Of course, I've put it on hold several times to do some editing on the first and work on some other stories.

For my next novel, I'm planning to not start writing anymore projects until it's done.

Maybe outlining would help you. Before I start writing, I wait until I have a rough idea of what my beginning, middle and end will be. Then I sit down and outline the large scenes and then fill in the scenes that need to go in between those. I only start writing when my outline is more or less finished. This way, I never have a moment where I sit and stare at the screen and think "Where do I go next?". Writing the outline also helps me see which area of the plot is still sketchy. That way, I can re-examine particular plot lines and iron out any problems before I've spent months writing the actual story.

I have the same problem as you where the middle of the story is concerned. The middle is the hardest part for me to get through, so the outlining helps. I know exactly what scene I have to write next and I don't go off on tangents or spend ages on a plot line that has no clear direction.

As somebody else suggested, maybe you aren't a linear writer. I need to start from the beginning, struggle through the middle and then arrive at the end, but have you ever considered just writing random scenes and then stringing them together? Again, in order to do this successfully, I would need an outline. Other people can keep the plotlines clear in their heads, but my characters tend to get distracted and move off on tangents. Without my outline, I'd be happily writing away somewhere way off in left field and only realize 40K later that I'm nowhere close to where I meant to be.

Of course, sometimes the characters do pull the story in a direction different from where you (and the outline) thought it would go. Then I go back to the outline and outline the new plot direction.

If you're still struggling, I'd suggest getting a beta reader who can help you work through ideas and help you nail down your plot lines properly.

Chin up!

I honestly thought that my first novel would not be completed in under 5 or even 7 years. I had a beginning, and college steered me away from focusing on it (though I can't say I regret it; my academics were imperative.) This past summer after graduation, I picked up again, and now I'm almost done.

So it can happen quicker than you think sometimes; it definitely was quicker than I had anticipated.

Keep writing! Outline that middle!

Fortunately, the "race" to publication doesn't necessarily go to the swift.


If your pet is sick, do you take it to the vet? If you think your novel is "sick" and you are not sure how to fix it, have someone look at it for you (as suggested above).

First drafts vary, not only between writers, but between writing levels of the same writer. When I was still working on my craft, my first drafts never seemed to move onto the second draft. Now, first drafts move quickly and once I have the basic story down, it's easy to flesh out where more is needed to round out the story. I've discovered that my earlier, "still learning" drafts were always longer and had to be cut, because I didn't know what I was doing. My newer "professional" drafts are the opposite.

It's possible you're still working out your craft, figuring out your style and developing your voice. It's quite common to hear writers say it took them ten years and four books before they sold anything. Four books was right for me, but I'd been writing a lot longer than ten years before I felt that I'd gotten anywhere. Nothing wrong with this if you are, and you can just write until it all starts clicking for you. Look at your novel and see what part is lacking. (Part as is, plot, POV, setting, structure, narrative, etc. Not story)

If that's not the case, then I've learned that when a story starts floundering, it's usually becasue I have a premise, but no actual story. Because of that, there's no strong protag driving the plot toward an inevitable conclusion, so when I've run out of cool situational ideas, the plot stalls. I know the set up and the ending, but not the personal goals and stakes driving my protag from point A to Z, because there aren't any. I find myself looking for things to happen TO my protag, not BECAUSE OF them. That's a big hint that they're not driving the story.

I'd suggest looking at your story and asking what your protag is trying to do and why it matters to them to do it. If all your answers are broader "save the world" type answers, then maybe that's your trouble.

When your protag has a solid goal, real stakes if they fail to get that goal, and multiple steps required before they reach that goal, then your plot tends to move along fairly easily because you have that end goal in mind. When the story is more about a situation surrounding an event or person, then that drive is often missing. It doesn't matter on a personal level if the problem is solved or not. Ultimately, stories are about the charcters, and if they're just sitting there waiting for stuff to happen, there's no story. And the best plot in the world won't fix that

The only time a first draft takes too long is if you have a contractual obligation to meet a fixed date and you don't make it. My first novel took over a decade - my second about two years - my third took three months.

It takes as long as it takes, especially the first time.

HourglassMemory said:

I see almost everyone having this overflow of information and just stuffing their first draft with information, and that doesn't happen to me. I often see cases where they cut back lots of paragraphs, and they reduce the work from 150.000 to 100.000. I just find this insane. I wish I could be productive!

Click to expand...

Hey, don't worry, that sounds insane to me, too, though it's certainly reality for some writers.

I write slowly. It's just how I write. Everything takes just as long as it has to take. No more, no less. (Unless you're working with a deadline, but that's completely different.) Don't worry about it. I've been working on the same short story for a few weeks and I have two and a half pages.

Recently I've rarely had bursts of inspiration. I'm constantly thinking about what my story is lacking, because I really see no relevance in the middle parts. There's nothing THERE, of solidity.

There's certainly ways I could fix it, but those ways have been done. There are stories out there already that use the same type of "evasions" and clichés, and I want to do something different.

I'm just finding it very hard to pinpoint what I'm missing in my story, and this only prolongs the period where I'm working on my first draft. I feel that if I did it would certainly boost the speed the process, and I could be taking the same amount of time that the majority takes.

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Maybe it would work to take a break for a bit? Write some short stories? Think about your next project? Let the imagination really work it out for you while you think about other things, and when you least expect it, the perfect solution will leap out at you.

HourglassMemory said:

I still haven't covered everything. I have an ending and a beginning pretty much sorted out, it's the middle that constantly keeps stopping me, like a car that's starting, jolts a bit forward but then stops, and then jolts forward a bit more and then stops for a bit.

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I feel for you here, I have issues like this too. I've talked to some published authors on this since it's something I've needed to improve on, and they've all said to add more conflict. Conflict is what drives a story and what will keep a reader hooked. If there isn't enough conflict in your story to even keep you interested to keep going through the middle of your story what makes you think a reader will stick around?

With that in mind, I read on here some suggestions to ask yourself before you start writing. I liked them so much I saved them, but didn't save the name of the poster, so my apologies to them.

• Who might be affected by what just happened? Who else might be affected? How? What might they do about it?
• What's the worst thing that could happen to my main character right now?
• What might happen just after this scene? What might happen just before the next scene?
• How can I make things harder for the MC? What obstacles can I put in the way of the MC's goal?
• How can I raise the stakes? How could I make the goal even more important to the MC? How might I make the thought of failure even more terrifying to the MC?
• How can I eliminate an important skill, ability, or resource that the MC was counting on?
• How could I add time pressure?
• What two characters have not yet appeared together in a scene? How could I bring them together?

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What these questions are getting at is how to create more conflict in what you write. If you can add more conflict to your story, it might help you stay motivated to push through the middle of your novel. I say that because looking for ways to create conflict has helped me immensely.

There's no such thing as too long on a first draft. The important thing is that you enjoy writing it. More specifically, that you still find value in the story that your telling. There may come a tipping point where time spent will outweigh value when you decide if it's all worth it.

My first novel (now gathering virtual dust in a file on my computer) went through four incarnations of the first draft because I found a better and better way to tell the story. I love the story but the more work I put into it the more it seems like I'm writing an epic the scale of Lord of The Rings. But I decided to let it go. Maybe turn it into a hobby novel. If it turns out, great. If it doesn't, that's alright too.

Since I came to that realization, I've been able to go through other drafts very quickly. It's like a load was lifted off of me since I didn't feel obligated to complete it.

As others have said, some write fast, others are slow.

HourglassMemory said:

I'm also feeling that what I have been writing for 3 years is nothing but a first draft.
And even so I feel that I have an immense ground to cover.
I still haven't covered everything. I have an ending and a beginning pretty much sorted out, it's the middle that constantly keeps stopping me, like a car that's starting, jolts a bit forward but then stops, and then jolts forward a bit more and then stops for a bit.I write a scene and then I simply have no idea what I should put next, I don't know what would be relevant next.

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I went through (and still am going through) a very similar problem. Used to be, I could write a novel in 3 months, no problem. Then things changed. Here I am a few years later, and no matter what I write or how many times I rewrite it, it always has that first draft feeling. I know I've got to rewrite it, but every time I do, it's still a first draft.

In my current novel, I hit a HUGE road block at my middle. I had 30,000 words worth of blank space. I knew that I wanted the love interest to develop, and I knew I wanted the MC to begin branching out in his abilities, but I had no clue how to actually do all this "developing." And I know how you feel about not wanting to just throw plot stuff into there, because that's cheesy and stupid and changes the story. I felt that way too. But I knew I had to do something. So I started off with the most dramatic plot twist I could think of - somebody dies - and then I began working my way backward, tweaking the idea here and there until it fit my story. (I know, this probably isn't your thing, but just hang in with me another minute)

My original idea, that the love-interest gets murdered, was stupid. It didn't fit the story. But by asking questions like, "who would want to murder her? Why? How would the main character react to that?" I came upon plot ideas that made sense, like, "What if the MC's father thought the MC was learning his secret? And he comes back, and starts stalking down the love-interest to see what she knows?" And then eventually, that led to what I have now, where the father threatens the MC first because of an old family secret, and the MC fights back to protect the love-interest, who may already know the secret.

Now the thing I'm really trying to say here is that it wasn't the plot twist that helped me figure out my middle. It was figuring out how my characters would respond to different situations, figuring out things for them to do, something to occupy their time. I needed a conflict to fill that 30k. Once I had a half-feasible conflict, then I began figuring out what kind of twist would advance the plot, without really changing the scope of my novel.

I'm not sure how much that will really help you or not, but I suggest looking at the most dramatic things that could happen to your characters. What if your MC's wife suddenly contracted cancer? I'm sure that would have a huge impact on the husband-wife relationship. But since your story isn't about cancer, how could you keep that drama, tension, and conflict? It has to be serous enough that the husband takes notice, but not so serious as to alter the story. Maybe the wife has a close brush with cancer? Maybe she's getting jittery because relatives and friends are all falling sick, and then she thinks she finds something, and she starts panicking? Etc, etc. You see what I mean?

I know I've babbled on a long time, so I'll stop with a final piece of advice. Once you have something to go on - a nugget, a half idea, anything - begin storyboarding. This is GREAT in helping you see where the gaps really are and in figuring out how to plug those gaps. It just works.

I hope some of that helps.

-Feathers

Me too

I could have written your post. I've been working on the first draft of my first novel for about 3 years. It isn't finished. I had a 75-hour/week demanding career (until October) and big lapses in time between chances to write. I had to go back and re-read to get my head into the story and that woke up my internal editor so I got more re-writing done than new writing. Now for the first time, I have time to write and do other things the job didn't give me time for -- and I'm almost afraid. Self-discipline isn't my strong suit. (See, I'm here instead of writing. )

I usually outline, informally, to get my initial ideas down and keep from forgetting those aha! moments when I finally got back to writing. If I'm stuck, I go back and re-read the outline and see where I can make changes, or try to flesh out the elusive 'middle.'

Or, walk away. Set it aside and work on something else. I've got two novels in progress, a third fully outlined with individual character profiles (I had REAL writer's block for a while and did that), and two other twinkling ideas in the back of my mind. Next time I get blocked I'll get outlines for those twinkles on paper.

Most important: you are not the only one to experience this, so cut yourself some slack. There is no perfect answer that fits every writer. Heed the great advice you'll get here at AW and try things until you find which works best for you. Good luck.

Yup, you're not alone. Definitely get a trusted beta reader (preferably two) to tell you what's missing, what's wrong. Odds are very good their input will jump start things for you.