Permission to rewrite crap?

Perhaps this is because it was my first attempt at writing a novel, but I never 'edited' paragraphs of writing. I entirely scrapped the writing and started over - keeping the ideas, characters, plot, etc. But beginning at chapter one and writing in an entirely new style. I'm on draft #4 using this method and I can state, with all confidence, my writing is better and my prose is becoming more defined. I feel closer to developing my own writing 'voice.' And, because of that, my writing's a lot quicker (in some cases).

BethS said:

Me, too.

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And me.

lizo27 said:

What do I do after the first draft's done?

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Read some books on fiction writing technique, such as Revision and Self-Editing for Publication or Conflict and Suspense by James Scott Bell or The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maas.

Then, pick something to focus on totally.

PLOT HOLES first. Plug them with roughly written, first-drafty plugs. Chop out something that doesn't seem to work or modify it. Don't worry about nice prose at this stage.

Then choose TENSION. Run through and look for ways and places to increase tension. Do it roughly. Do it chunkily. Don't worry about nice prose.

Then LOCATION. Run through and tart up your locations with a few details that personalize the way the POV character for that scene, notices and relates to the location in which the scene. Again, don't be fussy about prose.

ETC. ETC. ETC.

Then, run through and work on the prose and let your voice-as-an-author shine through.

ghagler said:

Perhaps this is because it was my first attempt at writing a novel, but I never 'edited' paragraphs of writing. I entirely scrapped the writing and started over - keeping the ideas, characters, plot, etc. But beginning at chapter one and writing in an entirely new style. I'm on draft #4 using this method and I can state, with all confidence, my writing is better and my prose is becoming more defined. I feel closer to developing my own writing 'voice.' And, because of that, my writing's a lot quicker (in some cases).

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I did this. The first thing I ever wrote on a computer went through 4 drafts from scratch. I found it useful for the writing process.

Re: don't write actual crap, just try not be a perfectionist.... I think a lot of what I wrote when I started writing could have been defined as crap. As in actual most-people-wouldn't-get-past-the-first-page crap. Maybe I got extra leeway from those I showed it to because I was a teenager? I don't think that lee-way was a bad thing, honestly. I was always seeking to improve and get better, and part of that was learning to recognise what *was* good.

That took a good while, and my ability to write, and then scrap something, and then write again... all very useful as part of that process. Each time I applied more of what I'd learnt, and what I wrote got better.

I wouldn't have dreamed of subbing anything until last year though. And those stories I wrote when I was young were ones I moved on from. But I think if you ascribe to the idea that write-revise-read-write is a valuable way of learning how to write, then you have to give people permission to write stuff that is actually never going to see the light of day. As long as they improve from there, as long as they work at recognising what went wrong last time, I don't see any harm in it.

Beginning to revise can feel daunting. So much to do! But once you get started you get in the grove and before you know it you're halfway through.

So just force yourself if needs be. Also save your original draft so that if you mess up the second, in some way, you can start afresh. My two cents !

ghagler said:

Perhaps this is because it was my first attempt at writing a novel, but I never 'edited' paragraphs of writing. I entirely scrapped the writing and started over - keeping the ideas, characters, plot, etc. But beginning at chapter one and writing in an entirely new style. I'm on draft #4 using this method and I can state, with all confidence, my writing is better and my prose is becoming more defined. I feel closer to developing my own writing 'voice.' And, because of that, my writing's a lot quicker (in some cases).

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I'm draft 14 doing the same thing with my first novel (I've written other since). I still use this method until I get to about draft 3-5 and then I edit paragraph by paragraph.

What I will say is there is nothing wrong in early drafts with writing utter crap when you're stuck until you get to a point your work is flowing again. We do have a delete key.

Kallithrix said:

I LOVE EDITING!!! It's the writing in the first place I hate. The blank page is the scariest thing ever. Next to that, a page of crap is a joy to work on, coz I can make it prettier! I love making things pretty. love love love.

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^so not me! (well - actually - I have a lot of trouble with the blank-page nemesis, too.)


This is more like it -

ghagler said:

... I never 'edited' paragraphs of writing. I entirely scrapped the writing and started over - keeping the ideas, characters, plot, etc.

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I have almost never edited paragraphs of writing. When I write into the wordprocessor, I tend to think and consider possible phrasings before I write. Until recently I did my first version in notebooks, and in this case I would write without thinking too much about the writing itself, my primary thought was about the flow (logic etc) of the story. Since I can't read my handwriting, by necessity I was obliged to write my second version anew.

I now write into the word processor directly. I tend to think things out, though when I'm connected with the story I tend to be satisfied with the words as they arrive. I do check the sentences as I write them to be sure they're not too clumsy, for example. When I'm struggling with the story my writing suffers. In those cases I leave on the page writing that I'm less than satisfied with and flag it (by coloring it pink!) so that if I should have limited time to review after finishing I know the 'emergency' sections that have to be fixed.

lizo27 said:

...I've always had this idea that if you were good enough you'd get it right the first time through.

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I have been trammeled by exactly this thing. I still struggle with it every day, in so many aspects of my life...

LittlePinto said:

I give myself permission to be less than perfect in the first round of revisions. Then the second. Then the third. And in each subsequent round until I say "that's good enough."

I enjoy working by successive approximations.

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This. I do this too and it seems to work for the most part.

lizo27 said:

I think I've always had this idea that if you were good enough you'd get it right the first time through.

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Even the folks who write well in the first pass can nearly always improve on it in the editing phase. Writing is not an exam or a test where you have got to produce your work within a set time (which nearly always means getting it right first time).

lizo27 said:

I I think I've always had this idea that if you were good enough you'd get it right the first time through. And that may be true for some people, but from what I've seen it's not for the overwhelming majority of writers.

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But you get good enough by writing the crap and sometimes not just less than perfect sometimes it is outright crap.