The First Draft vs The First Edit

What I wish I knew and what I've learnt.

When writing my first draft I set goals and an end date. A set number of words per day (I allowed myself an average for the week to account for days when I wrote more or less than I planned) with a deadline of six months.

I'd had a sort of practice run with writing a novel before so there were a few things I'd learned that I could use this time round.

I learned I was a plotter, not a pantser. If you're a writer you probably know what I mean with these terms. I work more efficiently when I have a guide to follow. I allowed a couple of weeks before embarking on the actual writing side of things to sort out the story I wanted to tell on paper.

Sure, I added more things along the way that I hadn't thought of yet but having a structure really helped me to hold onto a direction with my novel.

It also helped me to follow this one simple piece of advice.

Just write.

Simple, but not always easy for those of us who are perfectionists who like to second guess ourselves. I had to constantly remind myself that not every sentence had to be gold and that I would have the opportunity to go back and change anything and everything that didn't work. It's a tough reality but remember, no one is watching this part.

I'm glad to say that I soon got into the habit of 'just writing'. Guess what? It wasn't all gold but you'll never know that.

Alongside letting go of perfection I had to stop myself from editing along the way. Here's how I viewed it. My first draft was merely building the skeleton, putting together the bones and structure of the piece. I would flesh it out later. I made use of the comments feature in word to make a note of sections I was stuck on and why, remind myself to add more to certain scenes and highlight individual words that weren't quite right when I didn't want to waste time thumbing through a thesaurus. I would come back to them all later.

The first draft was an intense and brutal process as I fought against a lot of my instincts but it was also a labour of love. By the end of it, I felt it had potential.

Then came the editing. This part, for me, was waaaaay harder.

I didn't know how to start or what elements I should be focussing on. Knowing it had taken me six months to write all of this somehow led my brain to believe it was going to take the same amount of time just to read it. That was overwhelming to say the least.

I tried to set goals. I told myself i would edit five pages per day. That seemed like a manageable task. Until page two needed an hour of writing which took up all the time I had available for editing. This happened during a lot of the early pages. Maybe a page count wasn't a good goal after all.

I felt a little lost without a guide, without a process to follow. But I muscled through, almost begrudgingly, just doing something each day but feeling very unproductive with it. It was inconsistent, messy. Things that didn't sit well with me. I felt a punch of failure every time I noticed a plot hole or a character who was dark-haired in their first introduction but randomly blonde five chapters later. There were many points in which I'd repeated a phrase or description or contradicted myself entirely. So often I was left wondering if I was any good as a writer.

In the midst of my editing journey I attended Bournemouth Writing Festival which holds an array of workshops, panels and talks with hundreds of professionals in the writing and publishing biz.

Naturally, I signed myself up to attend the talk 'Organising Chaos: Turning a Messy Draft into a Publishable Book'

Cue the Hallelujah chorus.

While I made many notes there was one piece of advice that became my saviour.

Do many quick edits.

Let me elaborate.

It wasn't about speed. It was more about efficiency and purpose. There are many elements to focus on in an edit. Pick one at a time. Do an edit in which you check all your character descriptions are consistent throughout the story. Do an edit where you check the timeline is reasonable and correct (the author who was hosting the talk told us of a book she was writing in which she managed to keep a character pregnant for eighteen months). Do an edit in which you check the tense and POV is consistent.

All these things helped me get back on track with my editing as well as reassure me that I didn't have to be a perfect writer straight out of the gate.

I've been editing for five months now and, while there is still much work to do, I feel I'm at a point where I can't see my work clearly or objectively anymore.

That's where my carefully selected and trusted beta readers come in. I'll be sending my WIP off to them for some brutally honest yet constructive feedback. I'm dreading this part but I'm also excited. There will no doubt be things I don't want to hear but I know that, ultimately, they will help me make this story the best it can be.

Wish me luck.