posted
Okay, I'm finally ready to start the 2nd draft of my story. Problem is much of what I've written is going to be jettisoned. I can just tell. I've changed my mind so much since the last time I visited the early chapters, especially, that I think the new version will actually bear little resemblance to the original.
Has this happened to anyone else here?
Part of this is because I went through a major life change sometime between finishing the first draft and now going back to edit.
I feel like I'm telling the same story, better, but still, does everyone hate their first drafts as much as I hate this one?
posted
I wouldn't say I hate my first drafts... I don't like them as much as my most recent ones but...
Actually your doing good if you've finished one time all the way through. What I have written on my main project has been re-written at least 7 times... that is not an exageration either. I also haven't finished it, in fact there are huge holes where I know what I want in them but I've never actually filled them in.
Just a rambling
Thought
[This message has been edited by Thought (edited May 28, 2000).]
posted
I know everyone writes differently, and for me, I just don't like to write the same story over and over as drafts. I've done it before, and every time, I feel the same way. I read both of them as say, "It's the same thing as before, except the first was closer to the original source.."
When I do a complete rewrite, it's only because I could feel as i wrote something the first time, it was wrong to begin with. Sometimes, I've redone the beginning of stories two or three times to get the feel right, but for the most part, i just don't see a reason to keep turning out the same story over and over, because in my experience, my second time around is never any worse or better than my first. Sometimes, I do see extra little things, though.
I use the edit-as-you go method. Nothing is final, just read it and read it over and over until I see where i need to say more, say less, what to change.. I end up writing a story once, and watching it evolve as it goes, and when it works for me, it's a nice experience.
[This message has been edited by TheUbiquitousMrLovegrove (edited May 26, 2000).]
With my poetry, I am constantly editing and changing it, trying to "distill the truth" of what I'm trying to say. With my fiction, though, I do as tUMLG does-- I edit as I go. I find that if I go back over it, I change too much and end up re-writing *everything* so that it still makes sense. That's my main problem with Storm and Mr. Frost-- I can't make up my mind where to go next, and every time I try, too much gets changed. Posts: 79 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Actually, I've always felt that my first drafts were close to perfection...but I always totally rewrite everything anyway.
If you're a good enough writer to bother with a rewrite, then your first draft probably is pretty good. But it's still a first draft...
I look back at things that I wrote years ago and am almost envious of the wit and charm that I had then. I'm different now, and I write differently. I don't feel that I've gotten worse, or anything like that, I just don't feel that what I wrote then was awful or primitive. I change, I learn, I stay the same.
And I love to rewrite a story, particularly one that I love to begin with. I love being a writer. If it's worth reading, it's worth rewriting (although I try to keep that process in my head when dealing with other people's work; no one likes to be a plagiarist). It's just part of what makes us writers. It's not a quest for perfection, it's a search for things to write about.
posted
Forever trying to be the odd man out, aren't you, Survivor? I must say that is strange. I've never heard any one say they don't look back on their earlier stuff and not see flaws! At least, not in the earlier years when they are learning. I look back at my old stuff and just feel weird that I could have unknowningly made so many mistakes! Hmm..no wonder all those rejection letters get coming. But then, you never do fail to surprise me..! Posts: 473 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:I used to be a writer, dammit! Now look at me...
Tell me you never felt that way, looking at a piece that you can remember writing, but can't remember how. Perhaps I just gloss over how much effort I put into it before, but I remember writing it, and it didn't take that long....
Even in doing all the other things in your life, like...driving. Remember when you could handle a hair-pin turn on two wheels at 60 miles an hour? How fast do you take that turn today? Remember when you had passionate feelings, and you actually let yourself feel them? Remember when...
So much is lost to us. We only hold our own by continually advancing, never by trying to hold onto gains made in the past. I admire the writer I was, but I never try to imitate or force myself back to that time. It is gone, and I ought not regret its loss.
You rewrite it, because that is the way to let go of the past and advance. Don't try to be the writer you once were. Be the writer you are now.
I could continue to spout platitudes, but I think that the point is clearly enough expressed. Carry on.
posted
How about another platitude. What we lose in energy we gain in experience...or something like that. I have fond memories of writing as a kid in high school. My high school friends liked it. It was "cool."
Now, I read it and wonder why I didn't expand on this idea, or tweak that one. I can see lots of ways to improve it that were just invisible to me before.
And, I think, we keep growing and maturing all our lives (unless we just STOP). Having that maturity reflect in our writing is only natural. Taking hairpin turns at 60 mph is great, especially when you don't know what you are doing. It's exciting and stupid and you remember it the rest of your life. And maybe even write "American Graffitti" as a result.
But without the maturity that goes with growing up, I think my writing would be stale pablum. It may still be not GREAT, but at least it has more to it than the unidimensional "cleverness" of my younger stuff.
And that's just me. For every million or so like me, I'm sure there's a Mozart out there who seemingly learned how to do it in the womb. We all have to work with what we got.
Then, there's people like Merlin, who live their lives in reverse. Imagine knowing everything that's going to happen because you already did it yesterday. Would your writing get more youthful and daring as you "aged?"
posted
Hmmm, I still don't know. There are a lot of things that I wrote once long ago that I improved later when I revisited them, but on the other hand, most of the time that's just not the case. Often, I find that I just don't have the proximal experience anymore to imagine improving it.
I now like to go too fast around curves, actually, something that I didn't like to do when I was younger. So I guess maturity is sort of a relative concept. And there's a strong possibility that when I think I can improve a story I've written in the past, I'm really just missing the point. Certainly, I sometimes realize the subtleties of a past work of mine after attempting to rework it.
posted
To me, too much re-writing takes away from writing. I have dozens of starts with outlines on disk that I haven't been able to focus on when I rewrite the few actual completed works I've done. So, I try to finish something, then send it out for a couple new pages in my Great Book Of Rejections, then file it for a couple years as I go to the next tale. If a tale just keeps bringing in those pages to you Great Book of Rejections after a few re-writes, then the re-writes are about as effective as the original write and the piece needs to be out of mind till it reads like a fresh work again. That way problems can be noticed better.
posted
Will, good question! "If the rewrite gets the same rejection letters as the original, did you waste your time rewriting?" I hope your great big book of Acceptance Letters gets lots of pages in it real soon! Posts: 303 | Registered: Feb 1999
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that I had then. I'm different now, and I write differently. I don't feel that I've gotten worse, or anything like that, I just don't feel that what I wrote then was awful or primitive. I change, I learn, I stay the same.
