It is hard enough to complete a first draft. Even more crucial, I think, is your first re-reading of that draft. If you write in any way like I do, that first draft will be full of missteps. You will find events that contradict other events. You will discover elements that are left out (on page 5) which could allow you to do something else (on page 105). Or you will find something on that page 105 that contradicts something you wrote on that page 5. There will be tangential thrusts in odd directions, ideas you had that were never fully used or did not develop. Changes of characters. You may well finds dates and or numbers that don’t fully add up. Is your protagonist the same age throughout?
All such things (and more) are common in a first draft.
It is when you go through that draft, slowly, carefully, that you can—must—pluck out all these variances, so as to make your work whole.
Do not—even for a moment–think these glitches are NOT there. They are. Moreover, if they are not so noticeable to you, they will be glaringly obvious to your first important reader. You do not want that reader to be a potential publisher.
Do not think of these elements as mistakes. Think, process, process, process. If I were to teach a writing class it would NOT be called “Creative writing.” It would be called, “How to rewrite.”
3 thoughts on “Process, process, process”
Being that I am pages from finishing my first draft, I appreciate knowing others feel the same way I do: the first draft is aptly named. There are drafts, places where breezes could disrupt my story and even blow up a storm of confusion, IF I didn’t reread and rewrite it!
Feels like I’m bumbling along when Chapt. 15 and Chapt. 5 don’t always meet up. Glad to know this is all part of the process. Thank you for your honest sharing.
If you taught a class on “how to rewrite,” I would totally take it! Editing is significantly more challenging than the first draft…