Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Do you find it best to wait until you are completely finished your first draft before starting the re draft or do you in moments of lesser inspiration for the current parts of your story start to re-draft previous chapters?
Just wondered :-)

Hannah

I re-drafted few older chapters as I progressed because later chapters changed few things in the old ones, especially as all the chapters has a cause and effect on later ones, but sometimes I needed to work backward (I created an effect and I needed to add the beginning of these events to the previous chapters.). As that part is done, now I'm making a final rewrite on the whole thing from the beginning to the end.

Yeah I no what you mean, like if I introduce a character and then think, he would have been mentioned before now.
I'm totally nervous about a whole re-write...I think at least a partial re-write will be necessary as many aspects of my character has changed, but if its necessary it'll have to wait until summer as exam prep is from next week! Oh well, I'll get there!
And good luck to you as well :-)

I re-write things all the time. Different parts of the story, and never in order.
From my perspective, if the thought hits you, write it NOW. If you wait, you may lose the part of it that was so great it made you want to change your story in the first place.

Yes, you will have to go back and make the new part work, which would mean then, re-writing other chapters, but that’s the fun of it!

Just last week I was adding a little feeling into a chapter near the end of my story, and BOOM! Something happened, and a dialog started that I never expected. I loved it, and it caused me to have to go back and re-write several chapters, and it will also effect all of the sequel novels that are already in their “first draft” form.

Intimidating? Yeah, a little, but that’s the creative process.

When you do something like this, though, you need to (eventually) start reading your novel over from the beginning (editing as you go) to make sure everything still makes sense.

I never get to the end of the first draft without going back and rewriting big pieces because I have to change something. I don't mind it. I kind of think of the first draft as a constant, less as an end point. Like, I don't say "I'll write all this then go back and start editing and adding things." I edit and add as I go. It takes me much longer to finish a "first draft" but by the time I'm done my first draft is really polished. Then the second draft is more about content and complications and less about the nitty gritty.

I'm dead-set against editing (including adding scenes/whatever) during the first draft - especially if it's a first book.

I think the only thing that can sustain the madness of a first draft is to stay in the madness until it's done (part of why naNowrimo produces so many first-time full manscripts). Once you start thinking rationally about the story (particularly what it lacks, which will ALWAYS be a lot), and/or how marketable (or whatever) the book is, many people will get tangled up and end up stopping (generally about fifty pages in).

Writing and editing are in different parts of the brain, and they often don't cooperate well.

I do, however, write down everything I think of as I go - and then stick it back in after I've written "the end". I also plan a fair bit before I start - perhaps a line per chapter - so I have some idea of what the characters need to be capable of. My books get up to twice as long in editing.

Right now I'm thinking about writing a steampunk novel. I have the main character and her goal; the main conflict of the world, and some of the details of the world (but I need to go and read a LOT of books before I know enough to plan it in detail). This planning and research stage will probably take 3-6 months, then the first draft will take a month or two.

I'm with Louise Curtis on this. I always finish my first drafts before I rewrite them, even if I know halfway through it that it will need to be rewritten. I take notes as I go, however. It's noteworthy that I don't take as much care with the quality of the writing once I know I'll trash the words right after. It's the creative juice that matters. Once it's flowing, I need to keep it going and to see where it leads me. Most of the time, I will find ideas I'll want to reuse in later drafts, too, and I might not have had them had I stopped.

Every writer works differently, but I have no trouble pounding out a lot of words in a short amount of time, so I use that to my advantage and explore each draft fully before I switch. I feel I'd be missing out by stopping midway.

Yeah I see what your saying, I know with me that I concentrate in the moment and make lists of stuff I have to go back to, whether to amend or add in.
I think it is that thing of if your ideas have come over all of a sudden you have to get it written down and then re-draft.

:-)