The Thomas McAuley Fantasy Writer Blog
These are all the Blogs posted on Thursday, 24, 2009.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
First Drafts: Worthless But In No Way Useless

First Drafts Are Worthless

 
First drafts of any work are bad. You will be terribly disappointed if you show your first draft to your classmates, teacher, wife, friends. They may smile and say nice things, but that doesn't prove me wrong; it only proves that you have nice friends. Get over it. Like unicorns, finished first drafts only except in fantasy. But unlike unicorns, first drafts should be ugly, messy, scattered things. To think otherwise is a waste of time and energy. But that is not to say first drafts are in any way useless.
 

First Drafts Are Not Useless

 
Like iron ore in stone, everything that will become your finished work is locked inside that first draft. Sometimes the raw material that is your first draft will make it unchanged to the finished work; however, most often, what you write will serve to guide you in the right direction. And that is not useless. You have to get your ideas out of your head in order to judge their worth.
 

Creating First Drafts

 
Create first drafts with the same focus you would apply to any other stage in your writing. But create in as fast and brave a fashion as you can. This sort of leaned forward writing takes practice. Our inner editor always wants to jump in with its annoying hand raised and waving, wanting to correct the grammar or fix the order of events. Squash that editor if you can't ignore him but he cannot win or your first draft will be tainted.
 
With your first draft, you are striving for a loose, messy slop of words on the page related to your story. You are not trying to achieve your story.
 
First drafts are the bones laid down in the pit. They are the dirt in the bucket. They are the scattered stones. Once you're done, you become the archaeologist, sifting through the ideas you've regurgitated. From these ideas you'll know what works and what doesn't, where you should start and end up, what direction to pursue and what to abandon. But this can only happen correctly when you're leaning over a brave first draft.
 
Keep in mind that second drafts are themselves supposed to be rough, unfinished works and you'll get a better idea of how rough your first drafts should be.
 
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Posted on 09/24/2009 12:50 PM by Thomas McAuley
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