All these resonate. I find just writing an adverb ridden, tense jumping, pov shifting draft gets so much more out. It really is about believing in one's ability to improve a draft that messy. But we can, even if tiny bits are fixed up each time we go through the draft, eventually it adds up. I took a step back and said, maybe this writers block is because something isnt right with my idea. So ive just managed to complicate my story and make it more compelling- and so silly, i think im game enough to try. It might have been a goal issue- how can i sell a goal to stop a bad guy getting this thing because, apparently bad stuff will happen. Ok, have the characters learn it first hand. They actually get their hands on the thing... that's bad enough... then lose it to someone who actively wants the worst things to happen. Yoko Taro gave advice about story writing like this. A sad thing happens. Why is it sad? And make sure you put those reasons into the story. In this way he plots in reverse, or backwards, from the key moments he wants to have, to setting up the reasons to care leading to that key moment.
Working on a first draft of a first book and it's really blah. I'm pushing through but it feels so stilted and so "telly" (as in not showing enough, telling too much). Conflict and goals etc are there, I know my characters, but their chemistry and the story just feel a bit flat. I might be trying to be too detailed instead of pouring out that foundation. But damn its so annoying to feel like its just not taking shape they way it is in my head.
Ohh, yeah! I need to break out of that second one and learn to keep pushing through, even if the story seems boring or like a mess. Lol! Also, "rules" can really discourage you from writing.
Being a mess is fine. But boring is bad. Very bad. If a scene or chapter is feeling boring, it'll almost always get cut in editing. Boring is often a sign that you're having trouble putting together story elements, in enjoyable ways, or you don't have good transitions between central concepts inside your story. For the latter issue, I'd recommend a story grid. Famously, Harry Potter was written and rewritten using story girds. For the former issue, of having problems putting things together, maybe use world building bible. There are tons of templates out there for filling in character details. Or lookup something called "the story engine"--a set of cards that can help you fill in details of your story to add more variety and allow you to better control pacing. My personal technique keeps boring to a minimum. I build up ideas (characters, places, events - in a world building bible) that I think are amazing. Then I mash them together in a way that seem playful for myself--even unexpected. With that, I can usually create a quick 1200-ish word scene (a micro chapter). Then I begin layering it. I add more visual detail for the reader, so it matches what I envision in my mind. I consider how they might interact with the world, or other characters. Then, usual more dialog that might express personality quirks. Essentially, I paint with multiple brushes. As I do, I might think of adding a scene, or other characters that could be brought into the scene (ones that add contrast, or align with the values of the world). When I'm finished, I could easily have 5000+ words. That's my first draft. It's technically an edited draft, but to me, the first draft is finished when I have all of the layers in place, like fast-paced painting. Later, I use a story grid to help tie the chapters together and fill in any additional details to keep the story cohesive. It also helps verify my pacing, keep track of character movements and timelines, plus ensure I hit story beats. The only time I grant myself a license for "boring" is when I try out new concepts. I know I need a certain thing to happen, but haven't figured out the best way to do it. So I put ideas on the page, knowing that it will likely be completely rewritten with the best parts that come from these "trials". If I find something boring, then my reader will likely find it insufferable, and therefore unreadable. I tend not to spend much time on those chapters, instead moving to other parts of the story to keep my internal fires kindled. As an aside, if you are just trying to get words on a page, then NaNoWriMo is a great challenge to put yourself through.
I suffer from first draft perfectionism BIG TIME! Oh wait, should I delete that exclamation mark, or leave it? What about a comma after perfectionism? Jeez, I'll never get this comment finished.
I am quite often in agreement. 2-6, yes. Number 1? Not so much. The concepts in 4 and 5, which I agree with, pretty much undermine the concept in number 1, at least during the drafting stage. In the drafting stage, it is quite often important to NOT make definitive choices. If you happen to make one, that's OK. But you really should then leave room open for that to change. It is quite all right to make intuitive or gut-based choices. NOT wrong. It's OK to NOT have a solid concept of why you are drafting a particular scene element or even an entire scene, during the original drafting process. And doing that can often be very beneficial to the finished product, paradoxically enough, based on the way your conscious and unconscious minds collaborate. The reason why is that all creativity, all one hundred percent of it, comes from your unconscious. That is undeniable. It feels like our conscious minds do the creating, but in reality, we just become aware of what our unconscious minds just created and then try to take ownership of that as we make conscious sense of it. Our unconscious mind is then unable to say, 'Hey, wait a minute, I did that, not you!' bc it has no ego. Or language. The inspiration for the words we write comes entirely from the unconscious mind, and then the conscious mind translates that into actual language. And your unconscious is not the seat of reason and awareness and rationality. The best thing to do is to not fret about whether you have a solid idea behind what you draft, and to let your unconscious just have its head. Step aside. Let it do the drafting. It knows what it's doing, likely better than your conscious mind does. Of course, our unconscious has no language or ability to tell us why it suggests what it suggests, and the role of our conscious awareness during drafting is more to be an interpreter of that creative inspiration as well as a stenographer who forms the thought into words that can be written to the page. But I think doing that based on what the unconscious creates is the best way to do that, and to not let your conscious awareness or need to make sure everything makes immediate sense and has a reason, get in the way of that process. The end result of drafting is then unencumbered creativity, whether it makes sense or not. Step one. And often, there will be problems with elements of your draft making total sense. But that is the beauty of the nondestructive medium of writing-at this point, step forward. Relegate your creative unconscious to an observer role, put on your editor hat, and use the technique, craft, and skill you have acquired to refashion that raw material into something that will make sense to a reader and resonate with them, using your conscious awareness. Step two. IOW, all the goals mentioned in needing focus on what you are writing are still important, and this part, revision, is how you should accomplish that. But that should come later, at a strategic point in the writing process, and not first. Do not let that get in the way of letting your unconscious express its creativity. You would be doing that at your own peril: if you intercede in that process by inserting the reason and rationality of conscious awareness into that creative process, which is absolutely owned by your unconscious, that can severely cripple that creativity. Instead, relax. Let your unconscious create. Ask and answer all the important questions, but shoot first, ask questions later. Take turns to allow the process to work. It's a bit of a trance state, which our consciousness at first might not be completely on board with. But it's like learning to ride a bike-once you understand how that works, it quickly becomes second nature-if you let it. Find the courage to let it. That is where your good and strong stories will come from. Asking all the questions later will still prevent familiarity and cliché, and it will also allow uniqueness (as long as you are not trying to mimic other works or steal their ideas). So it is a collaboration. Let your unconscious contribute first in drafting, unencumbered, as it is the expert at creating story. Then allow your conscious awareness to fashion that raw material in the original draft into what it should be, as it is the expert on technique, skill, craft, syntax, grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure, and order.
Nothing you said contradicts the intentions of step number one. You are allowed to explore ideas whilst also questioning their place and importance in the story. Everything in a piece needs to be intentional, and this is what step number one is functionally doing in the writing process. Evaluating your ideas, on both a craft (pacing, structure, syntax, theme, etc) level and a personal level, is important for consistency. Without questioning yourself and why your unconscious mind developed these specific ideas for this specific piece, it is often easy to find yourself with a thematically and/or tonally inconsistent piece of writing. None of this is exclusive to any phase of drafting. You also sort of answer your own critiques here, “And your unconscious is not the seat of reason and awareness and rationality.” That is precisely the reason why you should be questioning it. Your conscious mind should be the one ensuring reason and rationality and consistency on a craft level in the finished piece, while your unconscious mind generates ideas. And having some sort of awareness as to why you unconsciously gravitate towards specific ideas and themes can be helpful in reducing redundancy when writing multiple pieces. I can agree with you about letting your unconscious mind run with ideas, and I do believe that is an important piece of the process, however that is not sustainable for the writing process if craft quality suffers.
I just luv your hair and face and voice and the advice you share. The Ancient World….. the novel universe……. I have no words, yet I have endless endless thousands. I cannot describe the magnificence and magnitude of it. The Ancient World, and all of its secondary stories. The Barbarians, The Wanter Chronicles, the Adventures of Bohn and Fellet, The Winds of a Thousand Rivers. But it starts with…. The Ancient World pt. I II & III. It cannot come any sooner than when it is meant to be given and shared to the world. My gosh. My gosh. Its magnificence is indescribable. Been in development for 22 years. Some say that is a sign of D.O.A, but my heart and soul knows…… it’s going to become of the best marinated novels to come out in decades. I never gave up or stopped developing and learning and improving my skills. Now I’m 31 and have this massive universe and endless stories and plot points and characters, and I don’t even have to look at anything because I have been engraving the universe into my soul and brain since I was 9 years old. I am confident and secure and feel smart enough to have begun assembling all the pieces and I have been a follower of Reedsy for gosh many years and am thankful for all the sage and thought shared. The Ancient World, but not only, the universe and many other stories of The Ancient World.
My first draft is usually pretty much the final product sans error checking and language polishing. I never just throw stuff on the page. Every line is based on the overall plot and what has come before. and driven by the desired ending. Taking your house building analogy, you don't just lay bricks and concrete haphazardly, and then try to fix it later. Everything has to fit together according to plan or it will collapse. You build your foundation knowing what will sit on it later on. In fact, foundations do have to be nearly perfect, or at least fit for purpose. Cleaning up and painting isn't the same as knocking down and rebuilding.