Okay, be honest…how crappy is your first draft?

[charlotte49ers]

I'm working on my first draft and while it's not 'poke your eyes out' bad, I see stuff as I'm writing that sooo needs to change, but I'm trying to plug along. So what does your first draft look like? Tons of purple prose? Adverbs and adjectives galore?

And if you say it is publishable as is, I'll cyber shank you. :-P

[Quill]

Unreadable. And yes, purple and loaded with modifiers.

[izanobu]

Depends on what the first draft is. The first draft of the first novel I ever wrote was utterly crap. I scrapped the whole thing other than the idea and intend to do a full redraft of it.

The first draft of my second novel was much less of a mess. That's what years of practice and working will get you. I hate to edit, so I've been practicing getting things closer to done the first time around. The second novel got proofed, a couple parts expanded, a little bit cut, and then sent out on submission.

For me, if the first draft of a story is so bad I don't want to think about it, I start over (or give to first readers, listen to what they say, and if they think it sucks too, I start over. If they like it, I send it out). :)

[deepsesh]

Personally, i don't think my first draft is tooo bad. But yeah - lots of repeating words, typos, grammatical errors and contrasting situations! Someone had to point out to me that a doctor's name i had used - was the same in england and even in Ireland, even though it wasn't supposed to be the same doctor.

But i'm waiting for feedback from agents - maybe the'll bring me down to reality :P

[heyimkt]

Ooh...mine's pretty crappy. I think the more I write, the better the first drafts become, but usually I find myself leaving sentences that need to be fixed, some grammar errors, and lots of scarce details. I think it's because I know I'll go back and fix them those countless times of rereading. For me, the first draft is just the base or skeleton of your story. Once you've got it all down, if it's not complete crap, then you can go back, re-type, re-think, and just redo whatever you don't like.

[Krista G.]

Interestingly, I'm finding more revisions to make in my most recent first draft (the one I'm still working through) than I did in either of my others. Is this first draft worse than the other two? No, actually, it's probably better. It's just that the more I write, the more I learn how to edit, so I'm seeing more stuff that needs fixing now than I ever saw before.

[shadow]

The first novel I wrote the first draft sucked @SS! But as I continiue writing I really pay attention to mistakes and issues so I can change them right there so I think my next first draft is not too bad. Could take editing for sure but not a complete scrap and rewrite like my other one did.

[JustineDell]

Oh.....well, at first, I thought it was decent. I mean, it was my first. I'm not Shakespeare or anything. I tucked it away, wrote lots and lots more stuff, got a beta, and pulled it back out.

WHOA! That's all I can really say. Since the beginning, it's been through 6 rewrites. Or was it seven? Eight? It's been so many, I lost count. Plot issues, character issues, grammar problems, you name it - I had the problem. It's taken 4 months to edit/rewrite. My poor, poor, beta has read the story so many times I'll bet makes her eyes bleed. But she's been great! I reworked it from the foundation and the ending was scrapped and written from scratch.

If this tells you anything-

Original word count: 78,000K

Word count now: 96,000K

Original draft was in 1st person. 2nd draft switched to third. By the final draft I had two more characters, added another subplot, changed to "suspense" angle a bit, streamlined original character "issues", etc, etc. It's like a different story, seriously.

So, the original draft? Now I can say it went from totally sucked to decent. It's still not Shakespeare.

~JD

[BlancheKing]

Mine was okay actually. The writing wasn't terrible; it was just incredibly short first draft with limited details. I didn't describe anything until the 2nd draft.

First draft: 30k
Second: 54k
Third: 77k
Fourth: 89k
Fifth: 82k
... and it keeps going. I think I'm on draft 11 right now

[Sommer Leigh]

My very first draft was terrible. So terrible when I was finished I scrapped the whole thing and rewrote it from paragraph 1. The second draft is actually pretty great, but I have done a ton of editing as I wrote the second draft, which I find is a better way for me to work than if I write the whole draft and then start editing.

[charlotte49ers]

I noticed something else about my first draft(s). The one I'm working on now has very short paragraphs. Like, a few sentences here and there. I think my dialogue is pretty strong, but descriptions are bare. Definitely something to work on!

[FK7]

My first draft wasn't "total shit" or "horribad", but it definitely wasn't good.

[wildheart]

I don't care how bad a first draft is because for me its just the most bare essentials of the story. A first draft is not meant to be the final draft. So any mistakes are welcome as you go along. For me my first drafts are about finding my themes, the soul of my story. The second draft is about making it shine. Well, until I let others read it. Then it will get ripped to shreds again.

In short, yes, my first draft sucks. But it doesn't matter because in the end I know things will come together.

[wildheart]

I noticed something else about my first draft(s). The one I'm working on now has very short paragraphs. Like, a few sentences here and there. I think my dialogue is pretty strong, but descriptions are bare. Definitely something to work on!

Hey! That is my problem right now too! And because of it my first draft is going to be WAY too short. I'm going to have to add so much during revision I'm kind of dreading it.

I've never sent anything out to agents before and when I remind myself I'm going to try to make that possible by the end of this year is really starting to freak me out. I am terrified of rejection.

So yeah. I've got tons of work ahead of me!

[Quill]

The second draft is about making it shine.

Lol. That's what my sixth and seventh draft are for. My second is about making it readable and begin to make sense.