Comments on: Draft lazy, revise to perfection

By: michelle

michelle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:42:52 +0000

I definately don’t draft lazy. I write a draft as full as I can and then edit and revise but almost never rewrite. My first drafts are full of my voice. My rewrites are dull and lifeless. Not only that I get bored with it and the rewrite is never as good as the first draft. That’s not to say my first drafts are perfect. The grammar and spelling as well as setting are definately lacking. But it is so much easier to add setting and description and fix the grammar etc. than to rewrite the whole scene. For some reason, I lose my voice in rewriting.

However I have seen writing friends who struggle to open the document for the exact reason you state wanting it to be perfect that first time. Interesting blog post Jordan definately food for thought.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:20:08 +0000

Definitely draft lazy (sometimes I rewrite lazy LOL). I think my biggest hurdle is the gap between my head and the keyboard. I tend to “draft” entire chapters while out running, they are always so clear in my head, yet when I go to write them down I lose a lot because I try and get all the great details I have in my head down and the essence of the “draft” slips away into the morass… sigh. Still working on it.

By: Cindy Beck

Cindy Beck — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:51:03 +0000

Good advice here, to get it down on paper and worry about revising later. When I first start writing, I did the opposite and it took forever go get anything written.

By: Iapetus999

Iapetus999 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:21:32 +0000

Well, let’s look at it from this angle:
What I’m doing is writing another first draft. This time, with the right characters and setting, and a fully thought-out plot.
Revising that is a heck of a lot easier, because then I can focus on just style etc.
If you’re interested, I can send you a couple re-written chapters…you’ll see how the first is kind of lifeless and the second jumps off the page.
BTW I think the expression you wanted was “in hyberbole”, not “hyperbolically”. But I’m not, I really plan to toss everything out. By keeping the first draft around you’re committing to something that might not be working.
I wonder why your rewrites don’t shine as much. I don’t believe that’s the common experience.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:58:47 +0000

Mm, I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave.

No, seriously, when I’ve had to replace writing—even a first draft—it never seems as good. Somehow it’s less fresh—it feels like a shadowy, imitative copy of something that used to be halfway decent (kind of the opposite of the process you describe, LOL). I’d prefer to take the laziness out of a draft than to rewrite it from scratch. I am firmly, irrationally convinced and the mere thought of rewriting something gives me heart palpitations.

(Plus, I don’t have anything that I’ve drafted recently enough to do that.)

But if it works for you, awesome!

But I was hoping you were speaking hyperbolically about tossing that much! I thought you were an in-depth plotter .