In What Way are Most First Drafts Bad?
I've heard from a lot of people - both on this site and elsewhere - that your first draft will be terrible. Some even say that you will barely use any of it.
This has me wondering: What about the first draft is so bad?
Is it that the wording will be bad? The story won't convey the message or sound the way you want it to? Or is it that the characters won't be fleshed out enough? Maybe that the plot won't be developed, or won't be focused enough, causing it to ramble?
What exactly is bad about the first draft?
3 answers
It's A Colloquialism Among Writers
Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird (amazon link), has an entire section named, Shi**y First Drafts.
That's where the idea originally got traction.
The better way to state this might be:
Writers Must Edit
or Maybe consider what Truman Capote said when referring to Jack Kerouac's writing:
"That's not writing, that's typing"
Don't type, write!
Amateur writers believe that writing is simply sitting down and writing. It is. For the first draft.
However, real writing for public consumption is : Rewriting
There. We created another good aphorism for writers:
Real Writing Is ReWriting
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"That's not writing, that's typing." Indeed.
I would not say that a first draft is necessarily bad. It likely requires some editing, but that might still make it hard to distinguish from the original.
Alas, especially in our era, it is too easy to sit down and type. Unlike Mr. Kerouac, we do not even have to carry a typewriter around; we can do it with our thumbs on a handheld device, or even record our spoken stream of consciousness for later transcription. Software will correct our spelling, but not our skills.
Thus, our "first draft" may really be what software folks call an "alpha" pre-release. Then, it may be poorly planned, uncertain in its POV, or overly moralistic.
Famous line from Heart of Darkness: "He had something to say. He said it."
It it easy to type, without having anything to say.
For comparison: Search for images of the original scores of famous classical music works, as handwritten by their composers (Beethoven, etc.) Compare to the same scores, after publication.
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There is a lamentable process by which averages become aphorisms. That is, we see a common pattern and turn it into an absolute rule. Adverbs are often used badly, so don't use adverbs at all. Writers often tell when they should show, so always show, never tell. This is, essentially, lazy thinking, a desire to rule a complex world with simple rules.
Most first drafts suck. This is hardly surprising. A novel is one of the most complex constructs in all of art, so it is hard to get it right the first time. There are many ways for a book to be bad, and a first draft may display any of them. If an author cannot hold all the threads of art and craft in their heads as they write, and most can't, then something will be bad about the first draft. But not necessarily one thing in particular. It all depends on which thread the writer let drop.
Most crafts are not like this. A good cook gets most dishes right the first time. Many crafts practice simple motions over and over until they are performed reliably and automatically. But writing is too complex for most writers to do this. There are certainly many elements of craft you can hone and perhaps even perfect over time but to reduce a world and its people and it hopes, loves, and intrigues to a single sequence of words sustained over three of four hundred pages, is beyond the capability of most mortals, and so most books are the product of progressive refinement.
Does this mean that all first drafts necessarily and automatically suck? Not at all. An experienced and gifted storyteller may well turn out an excellent first draft. That does not necessarily mean flawless or incapable of improvement, but it could certainly be excellent. (If Go Set a Watchman is indeed an early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, it is also an excellent novel in its own right.)
The danger of this doctrine is that it leads people to advise, essentially, that you should rush through your first draft thoughtlessly, as if it were an unpleasant chore, and as if no opportunity to create quality work existed until after the first draft is complete. This is bollocks. We should strive to do the best work we can at all times. But the first draft is special. It is the last time we will have a blank slate, the chance to map out the pure lines of story unencumbered by an accumulation of prose or of scenes we may struggle to part with. The first draft is the foundation on which all will be built. It should be as good as we can possibly make it.
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