How many times do you think you've re-written your first chapter?

ZachAttack

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Well, I'm finally taking the plunge and writing my novel. I have the general story line mapped out while giving myself some freedom to figure out how the story gets from point A to B to C etc. It's fun, but it also means that I've re-written my first chapter at least 6-7 times in the past 3 weeks :cry:

I'm not necessarily mad about it, because I do believe the story has gotten better every time. Just annoyed that I've written ~25,000 words and am still at the end of chapter one!

What's your best guess for the # of takes you've made on your first chapter?
 

lizmonster

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Oh, goodness. I tend to rewrite the first chapter a dozen times or so.

And more than once it's been the first thing I've chucked when I've started revising. :D
 

Harlequin

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In the low 70s for MS1. I'm still not done--currently revising right now, in fact.

MS2 was better, though, if that helps. No more than a dozen times.

And no, it's not a planning versus plotting thing ;-) more that I got gradually better at working in worldbuilding & setting, which is not something you really plan for in outlines, and is more of a sentence-level craft issue. A lot of those rewrites were about learning how to write, I guess.

I always know my ending, and my core emotional scenes; those typically don't get rewritten, only polished. But my starts change enormously.
 
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indianroads

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Are you speaking of scrapping your first chapter entirely, and writing something completely different? OR just editing what you have?

For me, the vision that eventually becomes a novel begins with the first chapter. I may have a general idea where the rest of the story is going, but that first image is technicolor, 3d, dolby surround sound - it seems more real that reality.

As a planner I don't just dive in and start writing without knowing where the story is going. So, before I start writing chapter 1 I plan out the rest of the story - to the point of plotting how the action flows, how many chapters, and the approximate word count. By the time I sit down and start writing, I've lived with that first scene for a while - and I write sequentially without skipping around.

Total rewrites of chapters are rare - to the extent that I doubt I've ever done it. Editing though - yeah, I do a lot of that.
 

MaeZe

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More than a dozen, with at least six complete re-writes and major editing with the others.

A cautionary note to those trying to get the whole story idea into the first 200 words or the first three sentences, it can lead you astray. Those exercises are fine, just remember when you are writing the actual first chapter, you don't need to follow those formats exactly.

Example: I tried to squeeze in a reference that my character was female because people critiquing those first sentences assumed she was a he. But the sentence I did it with was awkward and out of place. I scrapped it. Readers will know her gender from the book blurb.

And we work so hard for that hook. Sometimes the hook is a tad slower than 200 words or three sentences.

The exercises are useful however, helping one crystalize that opening in one's mind.
 
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BradCarsten

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I probably spent 3 months, 8 hour days writing the first two or three pages of my first novel.

If you don't want to be like me, I would advise that you move on, get everything written, and then go back and fix it once you're done and can look back and see the path more clearly.
 
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I may be the exception here as I decided to write after losing my job. I'm not a professional writer, so I just started typing the story as it came to me in my head.

A full rewite of my first chapter, never. I'm now going in and editing/cleaning my first chapter up for the second time, but I already had the entire chapter laid out. I had the begining, the middle, and the end all formulated in my head. After it was complete, roughly seven MS Word pages later, the initial piece of the story was complete minus some fine tuning of grammer/tense/point of view. Again, I am a super amature at this, but I know my audience, I know all the intricate details of the topic I'm writing on, and I tried to bring it to readers in a manner where they really feel like they are right there in the midst of all the action.
 

PamelaC

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I'm only on chapter 3 of my novel (as in...about to begin chapter 3), and I haven't re-written anything in that first chapter (or the second), but I've certainly read through it and tweaked some things. I've also read through it and made the conscious decision not to tweak some things because it just seems too nit-picky right now when keeping the story moving and my momentum going is the main priority.

Actually, I did scrap a couple hundred words (can't remember if that was chapter one or two) one night, but that was due to a plotting issue, not a writing issue. I knew the words had come with great difficulty, and while writing I had thought, "This sucks. I'm hating this." That always happens when I don't like the direction that the story is going, a direction that seems destined for a dead end. Thankfully, I stopped, ruminated on it for a while as I did some chores around the house, and then had an epiphany. Deleted all the crap I hated in a matter of seconds and picked the story up and took it in a new direction. Much better!

But unless it's something derailing my plot or about to kill my motivation to continue writing, I'm usually not going to fix much as I do the first draft. I always reread what I've written and, as I said, do minor tweaks to sentence structure and word choice, but as long as the story is getting told, I don't really do much else.
 
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MaeZe

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I may be the exception here as I decided to write after losing my job. I'm not a professional writer, so I just started typing the story as it came to me in my head.

A full rewite of my first chapter, never. I'm now going in and editing/cleaning my first chapter up for the second time, but I already had the entire chapter laid out. I had the begining, the middle, and the end all formulated in my head. After it was complete, roughly seven MS Word pages later, the initial piece of the story was complete minus some fine tuning of grammer/tense/point of view. Again, I am a super amature at this, but I know my audience, I know all the intricate details of the topic I'm writing on, and I tried to bring it to readers in a manner where they really feel like they are right there in the midst of all the action.

Now you need to get some critique on what you've written. :)
 

BethS

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What's your best guess for the # of takes you've made on your first chapter?

Several. Although I didn't do all the rewrites before proceeding to chapter two. Rather, they took place over a period of time, as the story expanded and I began to get a notion of what the first chapter needed to do.

OTOH, I do rewrite as I write, fiddling and rearranging and cutting and adding. But sooner or later, even I get to a point where I'm ready to move on. Maybe you should give that a try. :)
 

Redredrose

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I found, on my first novel, that attempting to repeatedly rewrite the first chapter left me drained and discouraged, and I hadn't moved onto to the second chapter. After receiving some good advice a few years ago, I wrote steadily through until I'd completed a first draft--with only a few stops to clean up and edit. Then, I put the novel down for a few months and came back to it with fresh eyes. The second rewrite involved massive changes, but it largely went smoothly. How many rewrites have I done? At least half a dozen.
 

AstronautMikeDexter

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I wasn't anticipating it but I recently ended up completely re-writing the first chapter of my WIP. I just had a different idea that fit the tone of the rest of the story better and didn't drastically change what followed, so I took the plunge and re-wrote it. I'm still editing and revising it though.

First chapters are hard.
 

Harlequin

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yes, to build on beth... I feel I should caveat my earlier phrase by saying my rewrites came as I progressed through the novel. Definitely did not sit down and do 70 in a row. Most came after finishing, during new drafts, between new drafts, and so forth.
 

angeliz2k

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"Rewrite" can be tricky to define. On my first major WIP, I probably scrapped chapter 1 and started over a dozen times, but I rewrote that entire WIP front to back many times, so naturally chapter 1 had to change.

That's a major point here: as you progress through your novel, especially a first novel, you're probably going to find your plans change, or that you want to emphasize or reword things. So if I were you, I wouldn't get too hung up on getting chapter 1 perfect right now, because there's a chance it'll change by the time you reach The End. And you won't reach The End if you rewrite chapter 1 endlessly. Just a thought/warning, though I, of course, have no evidence that you're in danger of falling into this trap.

[For later WIPs, my opening chapter either barely changed at all or changed slightly but kept the same plot points and story beats. I almost always keep the opening line, since that often comes to me quite clearly.]
 

anaemic_mind

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I didn't start writing my first chapter until much later into my WIP. I'm a pantser and flit around the story randomly when I write, sometimes in the same writing session. My brain is not organised when it comes to spitting out words! I'm also finding as the story changes I need to go back and tweak it a lot. Having something is better than nothing...maybe stop trying to get it perfect and move onto what happens after? You can always come back to it.

My current first chapter has had a good dozen+ edits and the previous two versions which have now become later chapters have each had a good two dozen re-writes and edits. I'm still not happy, but got brave and asked my other half to read it a few weeks back. He got bored halfway through...which I half expected. He's not the target audience and I knew it needed a lot of work still. BUT he then went on to talk about the main character and how she came across which was exactly how I wanted her to be. It seems I've nailed something at least. Now I just need to fix the rest so he actually wants to read the next chapter.
 
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Sonsofthepharaohs

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I'll echo everyone who says they've rewritten the first chapter a few dozen times, but not before the rest of it is written.

Don't get hung up on making it perfect now. It'll most likely change another dozen times or more. Just move on and get the rest down, then come back and revise.
 

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Not rewritten but moved. I can't decide if Chapter 1 should be Chapter 3 and move Chapter 3 to 2, etc...All 3 Chapters could be moved to either position.
 
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Technically my chapter 1 could slide in the chapter 10 position, but I deliberatly wrote it ito have chapter 1 as chapter 1. I'm sure readers can still follow it though. In retrospect, chapter 1 isn't the first chapter of the story. Oops!

I would say play around with the positioning until you are satisfied or you receive feedback that otherwise offer suggetions.
 

neandermagnon

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Wait, people count this?

I can't possibly say how many times. I don't tend to work on a draft/rewrite basis anyway. I continuously go back and edit/review/re-read/etc and change/rewrite bits as needed. It's impossible to say how many times I've done this. It's a big number, but much smaller than a googol and it's definitely not infinite (someone could've counted it if they'd been so inclined.)

I know some people advise against starting the editing process before moving on with the plot, but for me it's doing this that keeps the whole story coherent and stops me making continuity errors (well, it stops most of them...) I agree with the advice not to try to get it perfect before moving on... first reason is that waiting for perfection is a major cause of procrastination, i.e. it's never perfect so you never move on... second reason is because there's a reasonably good chance that you get to a future bit in the story and want to change something in that chapter. I edit as I go but don't aim for perfection yet. I have to re-read everything to maintain continuity and it's a more efficient use of my time if I correct and smooth out the prose a bit as I do that.

Of course, all of these are just what works for me, every writer is different. Use whatever method suits you as long as you end up with a finished story at the end of it, and you haven't fallen into any procrastination traps.
 
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anaemic_mind

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Wait, people count this?

I can't possibly say how many times. I don't tend to work on a draft/rewrite basis anyway. I continuously go back and edit/review/re-read/etc and change/rewrite bits as needed. It's impossible to say how many times I've done this. It's a big number, but much smaller than a googol and it's definitely not infinite (someone could've counted it if they'd been so inclined.)

I use Scrivener that allows you to take a snapshot of files. I tend to take one every time I edit in case I decide I hate it and want to go back to a previous version. How many times I've edited is really obvious by the huge list of snapshots ;)
 

uhstevedude

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I am a firm believer that you will rewrite Chapter One until you have finalized your last chapter. Then, you'll erase that Chapter One, and throw in a Prologue. After that Prologue, you're gonna need a new Chapter One altogether.
Chapter One doesn't exist. It is an illusion, a fantasy, because we refuse to acknowledge we never intended to BEGIN telling a story to begin with: we always had our eyes on the thick, lucious middle-chapter.