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Nails On A Chalkboard - #MFRWauthor


Hello and welcome to week 8 of the #MFRWauthor blog hop. This week we are talking 'worst' writing advice we've been given.

Can you guess what mine is??? Yep, if you said  'all first drafts are shitty' then you would be correct! Why are writers told this? Where did this 'advice' come from? Why are we encouraged to just write like the wind and worry about revising later?

Are we not all individuals?

Does no one think not every one works this way?

I don't get it. 

There are memes galore to be found on the internet about the shitty first drafts. Famous authors have said this in one form or another and some people hold it as gospel. Why? In no other job is that an acceptable statement. Writers are encouraged to treat this as their business. Some look down on the idea of 'writer's block' for the same sort of reason, but in the same breath give this little 'pep-talk' of sorts.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that my first drafts are the same that go to print, they're not. There is editing, and revising. I spend plenty of time in 'editing hell'. But I also don't just 'word vomit' my first drafts.

I'm a pantser, I hate pre-planning my books and I take it one chapter, paragraph, sentence at a time. Because of that, I spend a lot of time thinking through what just happened, and what should happen next. I have to make sure that all the random thoughts that come to me about my stories match up and I don't have holes and other issues.

That means 2 things.
1) I'm slow
2) The 1st draft is pretty damn complete

I've referred to the editing phase in less than favorable ways. I don't like it. And that's probably because I spend so much damn time struggling to pull the story together to begin with. I don't do BIG revisions of cutting whole chapters or reworking plot points to add or remove subplots. It's not how I work. Maybe that's why I take such offense to being told that ALL first drafts are shitty.

They're not.

Each author has their process. Some plot. Some pants. Some skip around. Some write in a linear A-to-B fashion. There's first person or third person. Not to mention all the various genres and sub-genres. So why, with all the other differences, is such a sweeping, generalized statement applied to all those individual authors?

Taking a saying from Denzel's character in Philadelphia, "someone explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old."

So there you have it. There's other advice out there that will make me cringe, but this one irks me more. Be sure to stop by and see what advice the other authors aren't a fan of.

Until next time
~Meka



Comments

  1. Good for you getting a solid, good, first draft! My friend, author Laura Drake, works like that, slow but thorough. I'm the opposite. I have to throw down what I have and move on because otherwise I'll never get past the first three chapters! Different strokes for different folks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My process isn't the fastest, but it works for me. That's the important part right? It's hard not to get caught up in the editing if you edit as you go, so I have had to implement some sort of rules for myself so I can move forward. Still working out the kinks, but one day I'll get it.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete
  2. I always figure if a first draft is solid, then the final work will be even better. For me throwing down a words just to get them down just doesn't work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I tried NaNo this past Nov. and it didn't work for me. I can't just write and worry about it later. I need to have solid footing before the editing starts.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete
  3. We really do have a lot in common, for heaven's sake! Agree and kudos to you for bringing this one up. I rarely plot/plan, either, and (wait for it) I edit as I go first-draft to fourth-draft. Gasp! Once I am certain I know what I want to have happen, I begin to write, and sure enough, somewhere down the line something is written to make the whole scene go elsewhere. So, guess what? I scroll UP, re-read, and EDIT what needs editing before continuing on. Shame on us for being so... different, eh? LOL Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL yeah, this one I had to do. I've seen the memes and saying too much and it was getting to me. Yup! That's me. I pants the hell out of each project from start to finish. Sure during #editinghell things are a little clearer than when I first started writing, but nothing is set in stone. Gotta work the process that fits you. Anything different and it's like being stuck in cement.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete
  4. The only time I really toss everything to the wind and write a combo of half-decent, shitty, and awesome-sauce is during NaNo. Editing is pretty much hell, lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NaNo, yeah I failed at that for that very reason. I couldn't do it. I tried but it was hard and made my head hurt. No more NaNo for me. Yup, editing is always hell for me.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete

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