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

starsknight · Oct 26, 2018

I lost count. I have well over a hundred pages of discarded versions, though, so that says something--some with minor changes, some completely overhauled. I'd guess there were a few sections I rewrote a hundred times or more. A few bits (mainly dialogue) have kept their initial form, but I'd say 90-95% of the scene is different than the first draft. And it's much, much better.

(I have NOT revised the entire book that much. I knew from the first read-through that Chapter 1 needed some serious work and would require a lot of tweaking to get right. The first version was wince-worthy, but I don't mind if my first drafts are terrible. Nearly anything can be fixed.

)

I didn't start revising until I'd finished the book, though. Too easy for me to get bogged down.

Curlz · Oct 26, 2018

Let's just say I'm glad we don't use typewriters with ribbon and paper, and expensive supplies anymore

.

flarue · Oct 26, 2018

I wrote mine multiple times for years, and do you know what happened? It didn’t get me anywhere lol. I actually ended up deleting that beginning, a few years back. My suggestion: Don’t get caught in the trap that I did. Just write something and keep going. You can go back to it later.

Curlz said:
Let's just say I'm glad we don't use typewriters with ribbon and paper, and expensive supplies anymore .

Seriously! Haha

Straight Success · Oct 26, 2018

I want to put this out there, and I hope it helps. This is something that I'm bringing over from a different industry.

I'm a designer. My primary skills are best utilized in the automobile industry designing stuff for cars. I was adaptable enough to start working in aerospace and defense. I prefer automotive.

There's about three to four different menthods that I can use when designing a new part, component, system, etc. Now, for some things, one method can be much more feasible to use than another. It all depends on what needs to be done. Knowing which method to use on any specifc task takes experience. I'm now at the point where I know with great certainty which method to use before I start. However, early on it's not so clear to many designers as to which method to use for a specific task. Although each method can yield correct results, some will be much more tedious than its conterparts.

I say the above to mention, if you start down one path or method and then relaize it's not the best, the motto is just keep going. You WILL reach the end. Sometimes it takes more time, money, resources, and energy to keep starting over to find the best solution. My understanding of writing is things can always be looked over and edited. Just make sure have a destination in mind that you want to reach.

JustWriteMike · Oct 26, 2018

I once read the advice to „start your book with chapter 2“. This has proven to be prescient with me. Over time I came to realize that „chapter 1“ wasn’t taking me anywhere. It was a big info dump, full of backstory. Once I cut it to the bone my „chapter 1“ had shrunk to the size of a mere prologue.

daeonica · Oct 29, 2018

I can't do too much adjusting and editing before I've finished a first draft, otherwise I never get to that finished draft! I'd say it's maybe been three or four times that I've made major changes to the first chapter.

Tomson020 · Oct 29, 2018

Straight Success said:
I want to put this out there, and I hope it helps. This is something that I'm bringing over from a different industry.

I'm a designer. My primary skills are best utilized in the automobile industry designing stuff for cars. I was adaptable enough to start working in aerospace and defense. I prefer automotive.

There's about three to four different menthods that I can use when designing a new part, component, system, etc. Now, for some things, one method can be much more feasible to use than another. It all depends on what needs to be done. Knowing which method to use on any specifc task takes experience. I'm now at the point where I know with great certainty which method to use before I start. However, early on it's not so clear to many designers as to which method to use for a specific task. Although each method can yield correct results, some will be much more tedious than its conterparts. because of dreamcloud

I say the above to mention, if you start down one path or method and then relaize it's not the best, the motto is just keep going. You WILL reach the end. Sometimes it takes more time, money, resources, and energy to keep starting over to find the best solution. My understanding of writing is things can always be looked over and edited. Just make sure have a destination in mind that you want to reach.

I agree with you

brightspark · Oct 30, 2018

Oh yeah, rewritten that sucker many, many times. And it'll probably be rewritten many, many more times. At this point I can't even estimate how many times it's been rewritten. Beginnings are hard, but what's harder is turning your inner editor off and writing the rest of the book!

Miss Vicky · Oct 30, 2018

I don't think I've ever truly rewritten chapter one, I've just edited it (and the rest of the book) A LOT. I keep making minor tweaks and adding in little details, but I've never scrapped and rewritten an entire chapter.

Glenn · Oct 31, 2018

I'd say a dozen times or more. I struggled with how exactly to start it - which character would be the focus, where they'd be, etc. I knew what I needed to happen to kickstart the plot, it was just a case of trial and error to find the right way to do it. In the end, it was the simplest, most straight-forward way I tried that worked best.

sandree · Nov 1, 2018

Many times. I just got my book back from beta readers and a manuscript evaluation and it was the beginning of the story that got the most comments and suggestions. This is my first novel and I definitely learned a lot between writing chapter one and the ending. Now I need to go back again and make the beginning set up the story properly, foreshadow what needs to be foreshadowed, raise the stakes. So back to chapter one - again. When I first wrote that chapter I had no idea whether I could come up with a story with a beginning, a middle and an end and no clear idea where it was all going. I’m kind of amazed that I actually did that. Now I need to make it all hang together better. Next time, maybe I’ll try to outline - but I have a hard time seeing a whole story at once. I’ll probably bumble through it again just like the first one.

G. Robert · Nov 1, 2018

I think about seventeen, so far.

thereeness · Nov 1, 2018

To semi-quote SAO Abridged: A quantum super computer calculating for a thousand years could not even approach the number of times I've rewritten Ambershield's first chapter.

Yeah, I like rewrites. A lot.

ACMeehan · Nov 3, 2018

neandermagnon said:
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.

Good description of how I work, too - and between that and sliding the puzzle pieces all around the board I have no idea how many rewrites of any specific moment. I use Scrivener but don't snapshot every adjustment (though may start making that a habit...I like anaemic_mind's comment on that). My very first version of the opening - the one that started the whole thing - is now skinnied down as a flashback in a later chapter. By the time I got to the end of the story, I realized I needed to start at a different place and lay a few different foundation blocks. Having said all that, I am still trying to get it right and getting to a happy place with chapter 1 is currently my biggest hurdle.

Carl L Sanders · Nov 4, 2018

Twice. I think.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through the 2nd Draft of Year of the Comet, Day of Doom: A Novel of the Norman Conquest.

Silva · Nov 4, 2018

OH my GOD you've NO idEA. :e2thud:

My approach to writing is (apparently) that my novel is a video game: every time I die (get stuck, don't like something, am bored, haven't looked at it in a while) I have to start at the beginning again.

The first chapter has been wildly different in about 3-4 different ways before I settled on the current iteration. It has been relentlessly edited multiple times per month over about a two year period. And then there's three different chapters that I've each written as a "maybe THIS is actually the first chapter and the one I have is actually the second" thing, all of which were rewritten and edited multiple times and one of which I'm still seriously considering and still fine-tuning on occasion (I like resting periods so that I can work with fresh eyes).

I did make it all the way through a full draft before acquiring this unfortunate habit, though, and I expect that I will make it through full drafts of future novels as well before going into video game editing mode as that tends to be how it works with my academic writing as well.

Laer Carroll · Nov 7, 2018

None. They come out to my satisfaction the first time. This is because (1) I have a general story arc in my head from the very first, though a very general one. And (2) my writing style is good, though it always needs a modest rewrite to refine it.

BUT my writing got that way by many years of reading outstanding stories, and writing fragments and failed stories. In other words, unconsciously following Stephen King's advice: "Read much, write much."

Scythian · Nov 7, 2018

There are certain writers, like Clive Barker, whose opening pages can be so damn good it feels like this is going to be the best book ever. It never is, but it's a neat trick, seen also in many other books by other writers, King included, and I'd say that into these "luring" openings went like twenty times the effort, when compared to the "ordinary chapters" of the books in question.

MASON666 · Nov 8, 2018

I haven't really re-written all of it, but edited such things as dialogues and taken out certain parts. I usually go back after writing five or six chapters, revise and edit from the first up to the current and continue with a fresh flow and new thoughts.

mwatchornbooks · Nov 8, 2018

thereeness said:
To semi-quote SAO Abridged: A quantum super computer calculating for a thousand years could not even approach the number of times I've rewritten Ambershield's first chapter.

Yeah, I like rewrites. A lot.

Can't tell you how much I appreciate this reference. LOL

In the upper teens for me. That's after I realized I should swap my first and second chapter. I read a blog post by agent Kristin Nelson (I think it was hers) that that's a more common fix than people think. Worth testing for sure.

Sagml John · Nov 12, 2018

Every dang time I open it up, I tweak it. I put on my publisher's hat (I'm definitely nothing like a publisher but I do have the hat) and re-read that first chapter every time before zooming to the end.

cardanise · Nov 18, 2018

Way too many times.

abdall · Dec 3, 2018

10. At least.

IanConrey · Dec 9, 2018

I revised it probably a dozen times as I developed my story. Then, finally, it ended up as chapter 2

SinceIWas7 · Dec 10, 2018

I've rewritten my first chapter many times however I have kept one thing the same... how I've always imagined it. How they meet for the first time.

So probably 6 times. It took alot of figuring out how to make the first chapter work but I still have a few edits to go yet but I am happy with how it has turned out.

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

starsknight

Curlz

cutsie-pie

flarue

Dreaming of Waltzes & Fantasy Lands

Straight Success

JustWriteMike

daeonica

Tomson020

brightspark

Miss Vicky

Getting the hang of it.

Glenn

sandree

G. Robert

thereeness

ACMeehan

Carl L Sanders

Silva

saucy

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

Scythian

MASON666

mwatchornbooks

Sagml John

figuring it all out

cardanise

abdall

trash mammal

IanConrey

SinceIWas7