Mar
First Draft Mantra: Make it Crappy
As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, I’m currently shopping around a finished novel, a novel that took me four years to complete. Before I started writing that novel, I would read about other authors for whom the writing process took five years, or 10 years, or even more. And I would scoff. What the F would take that long?
I was a moron. I learned quickly in my own novel writing process that years of writing didn’t denote day after day of continued efforts. Oh, no. Writing a first novel goes a little something like this:
- Eureka! I have an idea. I devote hours upon hours in September of 2003 with heated brainstorming and idea generation. This is going to be killer.
- The next few months I take a break, consumed by work and the general activity of daily living, but it’s all good – I have the IDEA. When I write that book, it’s going to be glorious.
- Eventually I realize there hasn’t been a lot of writing with this here “writing a novel,” so I get to it. I write on weekends and weeknights in fits and starts, coming up with plot and structure as I go. This is awesome!
- Around spring of 2004, I read through my first draft. And holy shit, does it suck.
- I take some months to wallow in disappointment and insecurity. What was I thinking? I can’t write a novel! And what’s the purpose in trying if I’m going to crash and burn? I get back to the daily drudgery of working in a decent job that bores me silly, shelving my dreams of writing yet again.
- In the fall of 2004 I dig up that first draft. So yeah, it’s shite. But buried within are a few good parts. I start thinking, and then I start writing. Over the next few months, I start again.
- In the summer of 2005, I take a journey back to my alma mater for the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I’ve got half of my book done, and ideas for the last half, but I want some professional guidance. And in the course of two days, I meet some terrific fellow writers, a helluva smart instructor, and I get the single best piece of advice I’ll ever hear.
- With this advice in hand, I embark on more writing, little knowing I still have two years ahead of me before the novel is completed. These two years see the auspicious beginnings of my freelance business, the highs and lows of soaring confidence and crippling insecurity, the painful review of useless in-person writing groups and semi-useful online writing workshops, the joy of having a completed manuscript in front of me, and the soul-crushing process of seeking agent representation and publishing.
I can say I wrote a novel because I finally learned the secret to persevering and completion. What was that killer advice from the UI workshop? Bret told us the simplest and awesomest thing I’ve ever heard as a writer. Just write, he said. Whether you’re writing a story or an article or a book, write like the blazes. Write and write and write and get all your ideas and thoughts out into that word document. Write knowing that your first draft will be putrid rubbish, but also knowing that having that voluminous text on the page and out of your head will be the foundation for the next steps: Rewrite, revise, repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
It goes against all of our good writer techniques, right? The thought that we would deliberately write something that might suck balls goes against the writer’s simmering stew of hubris and deep-seated insecurity and career aspirations. But man, it worked. Once I removed the goal of laying down perfection in every paragraph and page, it freed me to get the story down. It helped me write something I’m proud of. It helped me finish the damn thing.
So with this advice in mind, I write terrible first drafts of feature articles, marketing writing, blog posts, and fiction. But then I write again, and again, rinsing and repeating until something special comes out.
What do you think? Do you proudly write shitty first drafts?
Good luck placing your novel…
March 6th, 2008 at 1:09 pmHey Cate - thanks for stopping by, and for the good wishes. And your site is wonderful - I very much dig the nerdery, as well as your fascination with Supernatural. I like the Winchester boys myself!
March 6th, 2008 at 9:26 pmI love the insight here. Reminds me of Hemingway: “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit…I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”
In other references, Merlin Mann had a podcast called “First-Time Sex and the Beauty of 1.0,” in which his main point was just to get something done…because you can’t build something on nothing.
I’m glad you stuck with it and recognized that, no matter how bad it may have been (which I seriously doubt it was as bad as you make it), there were good parts. One idea, a few good parts, and determination to finish the story are probably what have made the great works of history.
Good luck placing your novel.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:23 pmI’ve just recently found your blog & I LOVE it! This piece is especially wonderful & reinforces exactly how I write. Just get it out & come back to it later. I usually find out it sucks & fix it, but the basic idea was pretty good. If you wait, you might lose the idea all together. I guess that’s the beauty of computers…we can easily edit!
I’ve sent this to my friend who is just thinking about getting into writing. Thanks for the continued inspiration & way to go on the novel!
March 7th, 2008 at 1:46 pm@Charlie: I’ve never seen that Hemingway quote before. How terrific! And good lord, that sex reference made me laugh. Thanks for the encouragement.
@Kim: Welcome! So glad to convert another disciple
I totally agree on computers. I’m too young to know what the world of typewriters and long-hand drafts was like. Painful is all I can imagine! Thanks for reading, and kudos to your blog too. Love the “potato-chip-brownie-bottom-ice-cream-pie” reference. I think I’ve had that before…
March 7th, 2008 at 5:57 pmKudos to you for having the strength of character to look that first draft in the eye and rewrite it. I was not so courageous. When I was 16 or 17, I attempted to write a novel longhand. I finished about 150 pages, before deciding to reread it. I cringed, crumpled up the pages and never again attempted anything so long and arduous, convinced as I was at the time that I had no talent and that “real” writers effortlessly spilled eloquent words on paper without rewriting them.
Good luck getting a publisher for your novel. What’s it about if I may ask?
Sherree
March 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pmHey Sherree - welcome! I had the same experience as a teenager. I remember devoting my study hall time to this epic soap-opera trash that would just curl my toes in agony today. But that experience was enough to put me off novel writing for many years as well.
You bring up a good point too about “real” writers. I think we have to contend with our own perfectionist notions of what real writers are everyday, in our freelance work, in our private work, in our personal life. It can be frustrating and humbling. But every once in awhile I pull back and realize - wait. I *am* a “real” writer! And I make my own rules. That’s the joy of this job
March 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pmI once read a comment by a popular British novelist (name escapes me) who claimed to write everything in longhand once. He said if you couldn’t get it right the first time, you weren’t a real writer. What a skewer to my self-confidence! It still takes me multiple drafts to get what I want down on paper and I’ve been doing this for years!
BTW, I made my attempt at novel writing in study hall too. And it was an Edgar Allen Poe-inspired gothic epic! Yuck! I still cringe at the memories!!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:38 amI needed to hear this today.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 amThank you for tweeting this to ProBlogger.
Now I need to stop reading and just WRITE.
I just did this last week - writing a law school application essay. I knew as I was writing it that it was terrible, but I had to get everything out that I wanted to say and I was scared that if I stopped to think about the perfect word, phrase, or sentence structure I would miss the chance to include all the ideas I had ready to spill out. I haven’t looked back at it yet but I’m sincerely hoping when I do that there will be some decent stuff in among all the crap that I can weed out and use!
Thanks for posting this - good to know other people find this technique helpful.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 am@warillever: Thanks for reading, and so glad it helped a bit. I know I often do anything and everything besides write when I’m worried about making the perfect piece - that’s when it helps to remember to make it shitty
@ali: So true - this works so well for stuff like applications. I’m sure when you go over it you’ll cringe a bit, but find some gems in there! Good luck!
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 amGood post. You make some great points that most people do not fully understand.
“It goes against all of our good writer techniques, right? The thought that we would deliberately write something that might suck balls goes against the writer’s simmering stew of hubris and deep-seated insecurity and career aspirations. But man, it worked. Once I removed the goal of laying down perfection in every paragraph and page, it freed me to get the story down. It helped me write something I’m proud of. It helped me finish the damn thing.”
I like how you explained that. Very helpful. Thanks.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:23 am