posted
So, I just read (audiobook) Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Great book. She has a WONDERFUL sense of life and humor.
Anyway, one of her tips was rather unique -- that your first draft should be really crummy (replace with a word that would better reference a dirty diaper). Humorously, she continues to advocate needing a $#**** first draft. Essentially, by rushing through the first draft you (1) don't fall in love with your work or see it with an editing eye, (2) forget it a little for your next draft, and (3) have more to edit -- making it a little easier to do. Maybe I've seen her tips through my lens . . . but mentally, it's a breakthrough for me.
On my last novel, I would revise as I went. Often, I had a hard time picking apart problems because the chapters were WAY too familiar. I couldn't see the problems anymore. What I like about the $#**** first draft is that by refraining from revisions, by the time I DO perform revisions, the material will be rather fresh. I feel like I'll be able to do a better job on the edit. So for this draft, I'm only going back and adding notes as a have thoughts on changes -- I'm NOT rereading my work (unless I'm certain of a thematic flaw or need to refresh my memory on a plot point).
So, this has me excited. And I'm following her advice and trying to break down my novel into more manageable chunks. I'd been putting off a calculation -- and I did one today: to meet my rough draft goal, I'll have to increase my writing to 5000 words per week. Wow. That'll be tough. But as they say in business school, setting big hairy goals is the only way to exceed and surpass expectations.
So, yeah. The book left me excited. I'd recommend it. There was a lot of material that I hadn't seen elsewhere. Moreover, it is a good emotional recharge for the semi-jaded wordsmith.
posted
While I can definitely see where she's coming from, I'm just not sure I could deliberately sabotage my writing like that. I've trained myself to write fast and with few mistakes, so my first drafts are usually fairly polished. They might take slightly longer, but I generally like where I am with them.
Every writer has their style, though, and often it's as much an issue with their own quirks as anything. I don't like editing so I try to do it right the first draft. Maybe Larnott doesn't like rereading when she feels like there's nothing for her to improve upon page after page, so she hurries out the rough draft so she can polish it.
As with anything, a writing style is as much about knowing yourself as about knowing your craft.
posted
I'm actually WAY better at editing than I am at writing the stuff in the first place. I've never had the problem of being married to my first drafts . . . once I've let a day or two pass. After a bit of time, I can come at it with fresh eyes, but before then, I'm pretty much straight up incapable of seeing problems.
Gimme a few days away from it, though . . . or even better, a week, and I'm all good.
But I'm the same way. I just have to stop caring how good the first draft is, and get it down on paper. After that, I can massage it into something passable.
posted
@Nate - She's not saying to write intentionally bad stuff (or deliberately sabotage yourself.) She's saying write without care as to the quality of the first draft. Leave your inner editor at a rest stop while you drive 90 the rest of the highway. Most professional writers I know say the exact same thing. Give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft. Anne goes on to analyze some reasons why a bit deeper than what I've typically seen. I write fast and few mistakes too (business training and early typing lessons contribute to that), but I do just try to lay out the story quickly w/my first draft and then fix any holes or mistakes (e.g., calling a character one thing early and changing the name later, or messing up the geography of my imaginary world, or deciding to emphasize a sub-plot by introducing it earlier, etc.) after the story has had time to sit. No one writing method/process works for every writer, but what Anne said in her book resonated with me and gave me new ideas for process.
Her book was really rejuvenating for me, too, when I read it a few years ago. I love how neurotic she seems in the book. The bit about going for walks with an index card in her pocket, but folded the lengthways so it doesn't bulk her up. LOL, hilarious.
I have found over the years that it is helpful to have a writing book I'm "in the middle of" at all times - sometimes one I've read before, sometimes something new. While at some point they all tend to blur together, they do help give me little insights into problem areas, or draw my attention to things about writing that I find particularly easy or hard. Basically they help me introspect about writing a bit more, which helps me move myself forward.
posted
Dean Wesley Smith advises the same thing in his blog series Killing the Sacred Cow of Publishing. He suggests that we let our creative minds, which have been essentially training by to write by reading all our lives, guide the writing process, and leave the critical mind, which has been sabotaged by college writing classes, at the door. He even advises against heavy revision/editing, which as I gain experience, am tending to agree with.
I wonder, however, if these authors would also recommend not outlining a story before writing it. I've had success with outlined stories (not the published kind, the readers loving it kind), and I'm just now trying the 'seat of the pants' approach to see what I end up producing.
posted
When I first read the subject of this thread I thought the last three words were "Big Hairy Goats"! I was really looking for what goats had to do with writing .
Anywho, I find it easier to just get the story down too in the rough draft. I try to be careful with my prose but find it easier to just race along, get the story down, and then do the editing. Works for me .
posted
Everyone is different. I couldn't handle rewriting too much of anything. Once I begin to second guess myself, I second guess everything. I just cycle through my draft, fixing and editing as I go, and once the story is finished, it's finished. Two proofs (one by me, one by a second reader), and I'm done with it and on to the next project.
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posted
My goal in rewriting is to write something, then retype every word, so I consider every word. A great deal of rephrasing goes on when I do this.
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posted
I don't rewrite. By the time a scene arrives in my head, it's pretty much complete and close to final draft. I may have left details out, and it may need minor tweaks, but that's it. All the major processing takes place in some hidden compartment in my convoluted trashbin of a brain.
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