TECH: Rough First Drafts

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 18 February 2010

Writers Digest, February 2009, pages 30-34, have an article by Elizabeth Sims with the title, "Rough It Up." The subtitle is "Get messy with your first draft to get to the good stuff."

Elizabeth starts with Ernest Hemingway's quote, "The first draft of anything is shit." And she talks about how she went from trying to get her writing right the first time to a more relaxed approach. And she assures us that as the first drafts got rougher, the finished work got better. Some of her points...

1. Be Honest. A careful first draft often leads to a stilted product because you haven't let yourself go. Creativity in writing depends a lot on honesty, and when you write fast, you don't have time to hide from yourself. So let the words flow -- and watch the ideas bubble.
2. Learn to love anarchy. Write what you think of, not what comes next. Get the words and the scenes and the thoughts out there -- then straighten them out.
3. Get loose. Relax. Scribble. Make notes of other ways to say things -- or just write them both down. Keep notes for things to check, etc. Don't try to save paper, you're exploring. When a notion strikes, write it down. Circles, arrows, loops, scratch it out and overwrite. If you use the computer to write, work at making the words flow, and don't try to make it pretty. Think! But don't let yourself get stuck. Suspend judgment. Hang it right up there on the wall, and don't let it come down until you've got the first draft done.
4. Face your second draft. Admittedly, the first draft is rough. But that makes the second draft fun! Now you can edit, rewrite, sequence, do all that stuff. And drop the crud that got written just to let you see the diamonds in the muddle.

Elizabeth talks about rhythm. For her, that's a couple of days writing longhand, then a day writing and editing on the computer. Other people like to spend longer on the first draft, even writing the whole book and then going to the second draft. Whatever works for you. The key is to let the first draft be a rough draft, an exploration in words, instead of trying to make it perfect.

"During the course of writing six novels, I realized that the days when the truth shone brightest were the days my pen flowed the freest and messiest across the pages. And I was rewarded with longer and longer satisfactory passages. It's paradoxical that giving up control rewards you with what you seek most: concise, insightful work."

So, that's Elizabeth Sims take on first drafts. I have to admit, it reminds me of the blue-pencil cartoons, the rough scribbles that cartoonists use before they finish up. The lines are wild, sketchy, and messy. But that will all be overwritten or erased by the final. Or actors, dancers, and others practicing -- trying things out, sometimes even bumping into each other, and... then there is the real performance, where it all looks so smooth.

I'm not sure why we think that writing has to be perfect the first time. Especially with the computer for editing and changes, why not give yourself permission to try things out in the first draft? Nobody needs to see it but you -- and you do need to see what those other notions would look like if you put them in words. So do it!

Write!