We often find story ideas swirling in our minds. Something we saw or heard triggered the beginnings of a story, or an essay, article, poem, or even a novel. The bits and pieces float through our head until we know we need to sit down and write that all-important first draft.
Why all-important? If you never write it, then there will be no happy ending for you. Those things you'd been thinking about will finally disappear into the great beyond, and you'll be trying to come up with a new story idea.
Today's poster quote makes a good point. Author, Terry Pratchett, tells us: 'The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.' What you're doing is putting those many story parts that have been floating in your head together in a coherent way.
Writers often question whether to do the editing as they go along when writing the first draft. My feeling is that it is better to write the entire first draft. Read it over when you finish and put it away for a few days. Even if you're eager to continue working on the piece. Why? If you wait and read it over in a few days, or even longer, you're going to see the overall picture in a different way, and you'll also see errors that you never noticed when you read the draft as soon as you finished writing. Stepping away for a short while is to the writer's benefit.
The same thing happens when you read that draft aloud after you pull it from your files. Silent reading and hearing it spoken give you two different perspectives. You'll catch many small errors by speaking the words, not only silently reading.
The first draft is merely a beginning. It's the first step in the making of a story. You might consider it a springboard that moves you forward.
Once the first draft is completed and has rested quietly in your files, you can move on to the editing and revising steps. That can be done more than once. If you do this step multiple times, let the story rest in your files for a couple days before each new revision. Once again, you'll see things with more clarity and will find errors more easily.
Excellent, as always. I totally agree that drafts need time undisturbed before a fresh look. Also, that silent reading and hearing it spoken are different perspectives. I'd also add that there's a big difference between an electronic draft and a printed out draft. When I'm reading the draft printed on paper, I find typos and other errors much easier.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you find more errors on a printed copy. I've never considered checking a print copy, as well as electronic. Thanks for the tip!
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