What NEEDS to go in the first draft?

I don't really analyse it like that. I just write, & then I rewrite.

That wasnt helpful, was it?

For me a first draft is like a mental dump and I get what I get. Sometimes I don't even settle on characters' names until draft two. I think the answer to that question is that nothing really MUST be in a first draft. Just write and see what happens!

The only thing I require of my first drafts is imagination. All of your other items come in future drafts.

First drafts are like what happens when you ask "What does a cross between a black widow spider and a grizzly bear do?" Any dang thing it wants.

merper said:

So realistically, does there need to be anything in the first draft other than the basic story? Can everything else(language, pacing, description, show/tell, obviously grammar) be swept aside until the later drafts?

How do you do it?

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One thing you mentioned that caught my attention was {show/tell}. With regards to quality issues, that would be a big indicator to me on hard you want to work during or after the first draft. To tough it out and to show things rather than tell them would be easiest to keep the work cohesive for revisions. I'm currently working in the early stages of my horror novel at a snail's pace and because of this, I'm able to catch the stereotypical "set-ups" in chapter developments as well as drifts of cheap narration.

During the first draft, I tend to fix as much Langauge and Grammar as possible. Not all, but as much as I can get. The way I view it, every little bit helps. For me, it makes the review experience less herky jerky so I can concentrate on other things for the draft.

Just my two cents.

My opinion? Whatever you can squeeze in the first time around, including plot, character, dialogue, pacing, descriptions, grammar... yes, even grammar. You are writing a first draft of the story, not an outline. If you just put in "what happens now, and then what happens next" you are really just outlining. Some people might call their outlines their "first drafts" but I wouldn't.

I just write the story, and don't really think about what does and what doesn't need to go in. I just do it.

Can everything else(language, pacing, description, show/tell, obviously grammar) be swept aside until the later drafts?

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Realistically, all of those--even the grammar--are pretty important things to the basic story itself. Writing itself is very hard work and time consuming, and many of these actually add more work if left out. I ran into a writer who left out the punctuation on the first draft because he couldn't be bothered with it. He also didn't finish the book because of the sheer work just to add the punctuation. Imagine 500 pages without puncutation. Image proofreading 500 pages to find all the punctuation mistakes and having to correct every single one--and then proofreading again and again to weed them all out.

Plus, one of the best ways to improve as a writer is to write everything. If you're weak in grammar, you'll learn something by trying to do it reasonably right. If you're weak with show vs. tell, you'll learn more about it by trying to do it. Leaving it until later may create bad habits that are very hard to unlearn.

And every writer sometimes needs feedback to improve their writing. But some people won't do critiques if the grammar is poor and the manuscript sloppy. Those who do critique will likely address every single element that was swept over for later, which won't be helpful because they're already telling you what you know. I ran into one guy who wanted a more overall critique but couldn't get it because of the poor grammar and typos throughout the draft. Those were distracting to the critiquers, and the first thing they focused on it.

Overall, it's a better use of your own time if you try to do it reasonably right from the start. You'll have less work, learn more, and have a better first draft to revise from.

Oh crud, if I tried to watch my grammar, "shows not tells" and everything like that in my first draft, I'd never get it done. Sure, I'll do a rough outline before I start, just to get a general idea of what direction the story could go in but that changes as I go along and if I worry about those editorial details I won't follow the characters where they need to go (not always where they want to go, but just enough so I can keep a lid on the tale).

So far, in my current WIP, the following surprises have occurred (much to my delight):

The original MC protagonist turned out to be the antagonist for someone that I thought was only a buddy-type character (and this former buddy character is now the MC protag).

One character that I thought existed, doesn't-- and never has (danged antagonist is one heck of a liar)

Another minor character turned out to be more important then I thought he was and instead of being dead from the start, he's alive throughout the story.

A secondary, yet important character ended up surprising the snot out of me when she died in a freak incident (it really can't be called an accident).

Something that I thought would be a "big reveal" turned out to be just part of the story world.

And the biggest surprise of all? The new MC dies about 1/3 of the way through the tale. Yes, he's still the MC and yes, it works for this story.

In sum, I feel you should have a general idea of where the story is going at any given time (right now my current "ending" is something along the lines of "final confrontation between the antag and protag that crosses both realms and helps Fieldstone (another secondary character) give a reasonable answer to the Ramirez family." Knowing me though? That'll prolly all go to spit once I get there, but hey, that's the way I like it.

Writers vary so much--you have to find the way that works for you. Some swear by the sh*itty first draft, some can't move on until their previous section is in great shape.

Me, I do my first drafts pretty much in my head. Much faster than trying to work through all the false starts and wrong turns on the screen. Once I'm sure I have a story with a beginning, middle, and end--then I can start writing. So my first drafts are in decent shape, because I've already thought them through.

I try and get as much in the first draft as possible. I mean, I know that I generally have to add more description when I revise, but I still aim to get it right the first time

I don't really follow the question. It's a first draft. It's you putting your story down on paper for the first time. You're surely not going to deliberately leave anything out. It won't be perfect. That's all it is - a first draft. You are creating something - make it as good as you can but don't let worry and editing nit-picks drown the creativity.

I tend to plow through the first draft. I have to write them fast, or I lose momentum. So some of my language may suffer (keeping it simple, just to move forward. I can find the 'perfect word' later), and my grammar may not be the best, and I may gloss over a scene that will have to be expanded later. I do try to make the draft as clean and clear as possible, but I don't spend too much time making it perfect. It's not going to be perfect. But it's got to be DONE.

What I don't do, though, is consciously scrimp on things like punctuation, grammar, showing, transitions, descriptions and the like. So I suggest that if you find yourself saying, "Oh, I'll just skip this now, and add it later," add it now. It's in your mind. Get it on the page. It can be sloppy, and it can be fixed later or deleted, but if it's in your head and you don't put it on the page, then it could very well disappear.

First draft

Definitely grammar, though I'm not sure how this is an option. If you know grammar, it goes in automatically. If you don't know grammar, then how are you going to incorporate it into the second draft? Grammar is part of writing well, and other than minor goofs here and there, isn't something you can patch up later. Poor grammar means poor writing, and even if you manage to correct the grammar later, all you have is poor writing that's grammatically perfect.

But the short answer is that the first draft should be written as well as possible, even if the final draft will be radically different because of revision and rewriting.

I think the worst advice out there is that the first draft can be pure crap. Have you ever seen the first draft of a writer who says this? Crap is relative, and the first draft of most writers who claim to write crap is often publishable as is.

If you want to write an outline, then write an outine. If you want to write a first draft, then write it as well as you can. If silver is tarnished you can polish it until it shines, but you can rub crap for a year and it's never going to glow.

A final draft may be radically different than whatever the first draft is like, but it's pretty difficult to explain how a good writer ever writes poorly, even in first draft.

Do the best you can - five or ten minutes, or an hour, is neither here nor there.

First, I imagine a REALLY fat person.

Then, after I'm done laughing, I start 'trimming him down'. Like Jared on the Subway commercials. God I hate him. He's insulting the McMotherland! So, instead of a Sub sandwich, he gets an Asian salad from McD's.

Soon, fat person = skinny.

In essence, I imagine my MS as a fat man. I put eeeeeveeeerrryyyytttthiiing I want in the ms. Then I trim him/it down and it's done!

nachonaco_Grippers said:

First, I imagine a REALLY fat person.

Then, after I'm done laughing

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*raised eyebrows* Nice.

merper said:

I guess my worry is, I'll add too much and waste weeks writing material that I'm just going to end up taking out anyway. Like every scene I'm writing, I keep thinking: Is this really important? Do I really need to have it?

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It's not a waste, as even the stuff you don't use in the end, will be used to develop your story in your own head and make the stuff you write after that much clearer. Just write everything you can think of, you can always cut later, and it's easier to cut than to add.

These are perfectly valid questions. If you can't answer them as you write, answer them when you're ready to revise.

merper said:

I guess my worry is, I'll add too much and waste weeks writing material that I'm just going to end up taking out anyway. Like every scene I'm writing, I keep thinking: Is this really important? Do I really need to have it?

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I was kidding about the laughing part. Sorry.

Linda Adams said:

And every writer sometimes needs feedback to improve their writing. But some people won't do critiques if the grammar is poor and the manuscript sloppy. Those who do critique will likely address every single element that was swept over for later, which won't be helpful because they're already telling you what you know. I ran into one guy who wanted a more overall critique but couldn't get it because of the poor grammar and typos throughout the draft. Those were distracting to the critiquers, and the first thing they focused on.

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Ah, so that's why ... I'm trying to get a better handle on grammar. I go over the rough draft as I write to check for it, but I still mess it up. I am hopeful, that by the time I get to the rewriting stage, I'll understand it more, and I'll be able to apply what I've learned. I am terrified, that I will never get the hang of commas . For example, I put commas after I describe my feelings in the above sentences because I pause there when reading them aloud, but I'm unsure if I should do that or not. I'm also inclined to add them before "because", and after "there" in the above sentence for the same reason. But then, I have commas all over... If I obsess over that issue I will never get past page one. I try to make my rough draft as good as it can possibly be, but it is still a very rough draft.

I put EVERYTHING in my first draft, even stuff like parts that don't go anywhere.

I dump it all onto the page. It's the "down" draft (thanks, A.L.!), just getting it down. The next draft is the "up" draft, just fixing it up.