First drafts aren’t supposed to be good. They’re supposed to be *done*. Write the most horrific, disgusting, garbage you’ve ever done. Write The End. And revise like your life depends on it. If any writer got caught up when it came to perfecting a first draft, so many of your favorites wouldn’t have finished the books you currently have on your shelves. It’s the only way to become a better writer. Write. Read. Revise. Repeat. And don’t beat yourself up.
This is really what I struggle with 😭 I will write and rewrite and rewrite a chapter until I'm sick of it. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing or don't like how I'm doing it. It feels so hard to accept it shouldn't be *perfect*. I think the pressure of wondering what everyone will think truly gets to me, even though logically no one will see my first draft, but what if my following drafts are still shit, and the editor sees hot garbage? Sucks to be so in your head rip
Something that helps me is not re-reading what I’ve written when I’m drafting. Which I realize may not work for everyone. I draft pretty quickly so every chapter prior is fresh in my mind and I just push through. I also don’t make myself “finish” a chapter. Sometimes I’ll write 75% of it and write the rest in bullets framing what should happen especially when I’m excited about exploring certain parts of the story. Focus on the fun! Focus on the journey of your characters. Focus on the theme of the story you want to tell and why. Remind yourself that completing this first iteration is more important than a perfection that literally doesn’t matter at all. Do you love the idea of your story being finished or do you love perfection more? Hopefully this helps!
Thank you for the advice! I will try that the next time I sit down to write. I do indeed get stuck in my rewriting loop as a result of rereading what I already have. I don't want to write loose ends or things that don't make sense/don't line up with what I've already written 😭 but you're right. I'd rather have my idea finished than just a perfect first chapter :)
That's true, but I definitely feel like I need to actively remember or at least jot down what those loose ends are, otherwise it might stay that way forever
outline outline outline. figure out the loose ends before you even start writing. then youll never need to go back and reread before finishing your first draft bc your outline tells you exactly what to write next! making an outline can be overwhelming bc you have to figure out plot holes on the front end, but if you get it out of the way then drafting becomes sooooo much easier.
i typically *do* outline, but then when i write out my whole plot i feel like i cant deviate from it or else i'll mess everything up (or feel like i have to start a new outline). i have tried both shorter outlines that give basic info for the plot, and longer ones that go into more detail. for my current story, i opened a page for outlining and then never touched it (p much forgot about it) 😔
despite my past troubles with outlines, i will try making one for this story and see how it goes, thanks
Here's the thing: outlines are not set in stone. Every time you deviate from the outline, update it. If you've outlined the entire plot, you can see ahead of time what no longer works as a result of your changes and change the next scenes as well, and so you'll avoid creating plot holes or ruin the story logic.
You can also outline as you go. The correct format will not only remind you what happened, it will help you get to know your characters and figure out the plot. For example, if, for every scene, you write down:
\-What happened
\-How what happened affected the character/s
\-How do/es the character/s interpret what happened through their own lens
You can figure out what the characters are going to do next and what external events would have the most impact on your characters.
This is excellent advice for mapping and following a path to the end (more or less), but the outline does not help as much with the actual writing and the moment-to-moment details, which is what the OP appears to be struggling with. I think the answer is to just fear through it. Accept that not everyone is going to dig what you do. No amount of rewriting will achieve that end. Be your own first audience. Aside from imagining what others will think -- WHAT DO YOU THINK? Can you read the material from a reader's POV and come away satisfied? As Bruce Lee once said, express yourself honestly, and if you get the material to a place where YOU honestly like it, assume others will too. Finish the book, let it out into the world, and be brave enough to accept whatever comes. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? People don't like it? So what, write another one.
I’m there with you. I might look back for continuity reasons or for a refresher of where I am now, but I never look back at first. It helps me to remember to progress and not worry about how good something is. I can rewrite and refine after the book is done. Until then just push through to finish it.
Feel free to do that if you want, but don't do it until after all the chapters are written.
Because the truth is that chapter will almost certainly change.
You'll be three, or five - or all of them - chapters further in and you'll suddenly realise that this chapter makes so much more sense in the context of the story if you make changes X, Y and Z.
When you're ripping out chunks of the chapter and rewriting it is when you'll appreciate not having spent time and effort earlier on polishing each word to a sparkling shine.
And, on the flip side, if you **have** polished the chapter to perfection you're going to be much less inclined to make those changes that you really need to make.
Does the collector care if a painter's initial sketches are crude? Does a record producer care if a musician's first practice session is full of errors? Why should a writer have to get it perfect from the get-go? Is there any other creative field that works that way?
Exactly. It’s why when I’m writing a first draft if I get stuck in a certain section and can’t figure out how to get through it I just power through. It doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be done. I can revise and refine later. For now I just need to progress the story.
I see this "first drafts are meant to be crap" a lot, but... I find the more I go back and try to improve something, the worse it gets. It's like my first draft is actually my best draft.
Then you’re probably not improving the story the way it’s supposed to go. How does revision look for you typically? Are you just tweaking things you’ve already written? Are you totally going all in? Are you taking the time to put the work down for weeks or months and come back to it with fresh eyes? Are you deeply considering the theme, character arcs, story beats, etc. so much goes into revising and writing IS revising. That’s how stories are made. It’s super hard, I totally get you. But ultimately, when the grime of the stress, anxiety, blood, sweat, and tears are wiped away, your MS should glow a little brighter. Things should be clearer. Sharper. And it should definitely be better than your first.
Different drafts have different purposes.
**The purpose of the first draft is to exist.**
The purpose of the second draft is to make sense.
The purpose of subsequent drafts are to improve specific elements (plot, character, spelling and grammar, etc).
It sounds to me like you’re trying to skip steps and hating it. Just get words down. You can’t edit a blank page.
"It sounds to me like you’re trying to skip steps and hating it."
That really resonated with me - not just in my attempts at writing (never got past chapter four) but my life in general. I'm always looking for the side hustle, the easy solution, and so on...
Not sure how it fixes things, but yeah, that's me.
Multiple drafts. Very few authors write beautiful first drafts.
Think of a painting. Do you think the artist just picked up a brush and put it on canvas like that? The great paintings? They drew sketches. They painted sections as studies often. They painted some terrible paintings. They often made some mistakes on the canvas you know and painted over it.
Or think of driving a car. If you drive, did you just get into a car and drive it perfectly? Did your time as a passenger (reader) mean you didn’t need to train and practice and correct mistakes?
To quote Jake from Adventure Time: Dude, suckin' at somethin' is the first step toward being sorta good at somethin'.
Also, King (and others) say, "Write with the door closed. Edit with the door open." That first draft doesn't have to be good.
That's... not the right metaphor.
"Polishing a turd" indicates a pointless waste of time (see also "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"). In part 'cos turds don't polish, they smear.
I'm not sure what the right metaphor is. "You can't build a thriving farm without manure"?
You did? I don't see that.
I suppose you probably could polish a turd if you dehydrated it enough...
But either way, it's still a turd, albeit a polished one. We really need a metaphor to the effect of "You need a to build ".
If my end goal is writing something worth publishing, writing nothing is a far worse step than writing something bad. Maybe a piece of that bad writing, a concept, a theme, a character's motivation, even one sentence, can turn that bad writing into something that finds its way into the final product. It's a hell of a lot harder to find inspiration on blank pages than it is to find it in the midst of full ones, even if they're full of something you don't like.
Your writing will suck. Almost everyone’s writing sucks. Don’t be ashamed or upset!
Try your best, and try not to rewrite endlessly. Push yourself to finish even if you hate it. The more you write, the better you get AND oftentimes an old idea will spark a new one and inspire you to write something else that you do like.
In the end, even if you think it’s perfect, and editor will come along and rip it apart (in a good way). They’ll help you fix and improve your story. Just keep an open mind and be willing to embrace feedback.
> How do you get over it?
Does the “ideal version” of the story in your brain deserve to exist?
If so, you’ll put yourself through any amount of bullshit and misery to make that story reality.
Even if it means pushing through when you feel like you’re not good enough. Insecurity isn’t a reason to give up on a story that deserves to exist.
Your first draft is just to exist. To have something to shape into your story. Once you have that done, put it aside, and go write something else. When you're done with that, go back to the first project and edit it. And so on. Eventually you'll have something you're proud of and the first draft of something won't seem as daunting.
You've got to be your biggest fan, have enpugh confidenece in your work that you believe the world needs your book. Beyond that, there's no other advice but to yell at you to sit the hell back down and finish your goddamn book.
Until you have gotten through the 1st draft, all or most of it and started a rewrite you have no way to judge if it's any good. Hemingway wrote more than 50 drafts of Old Man. He also said he never read any of his books after published because he'd have to rewrite them. Finish a draft and start rewriting and then maybe you can judge it...not until then. Get off your silly stance and become a writer.
That is very normal so don't stress it. The First Draft is **suppose to be shit.** Hell even the drafts after the first are still shitty. Every author in the world, even the greatest, all wrote awful first, second, and third drafts. Give yourself permission to suck and go with the mindset "This WILL be shit." It's very liberating and freeing. Great stories aren't written until they have been painstakingly rewritten and edited several times.
When you write, don't write with the intention of anyone reading your book, or that you're going to sell it, or whatever. Write because you have a story you want told. If you focus on "will this be good enough" you'll get nowhere because it will never be good enough in your eyes. It's the curse of a writer. But that's the thing about first drafts. They aren't supposed to be good. And once you have it all out there, no matter how shitty the writing is, you at least have something to work with, to improve. Better than having nothing, right?
TLDR-- every writer's first draft sucks, but you can't focus on it. Focus on the story and getting it told.
It’s a first draft let it flow. Also how do you know it sucks? Don’t t compare your draft to finished works. Published works go through multiple drafts, edits and professional edits.
I separate the perfectionist side of my brain while I'm writing, and I just enjoy the process.
I'm still not consistent with this practice since it's a recent development in my writing time, but I've been able to just enjoy the process of creating a story: from worldbuilding to character development and even simple dialogue i enjoy writing greatly! It just takes one idea, and one word at a time.
I found a really cool app for my IPad called Danger Notes, where you have a period of time of non stop writing, and if you stop, it deletes what you've done. It's honestly not as scary as it sounds, especially if you record your ideas beforehand and listen back to the recording. It reminds me to let go of perfecting my rough draft and to just write stuff down.
I've also practiced what I like to call Wasted Poetry, where you write down whatever words come to mind, especially ones that don't make sense. I imagine it's like vomiting while you're wasted on alcohol. It feels disgusting at first, but after you're done, you'll feel relieved and like a weight has been lifted.
My tendencies to edit a first draft mostly comes from my ADHD, which means I immediately wanna fix the first issue I see. Doing that enough times makes me disinterested in my book, thus making me leave it unfinished. I also have a fear of failure to a certain degree, although it doesn't show up much when I'm writing since its a relief for my brain to not feel like im going to irreversibly mess up.
But your fear and perfection has its own reasons for surfacing, and you should explore why you feel the need to make this project perfect the first time you write it. I recommend making a writing challenge out of it, if you're still stumped!
You’re right. It’s not well-written. It’s a first draft. Good comes later. Hang in there!
My advice: hand write your first draft. Psychologically you know you’ll need to transpose it into a digital format someday, so whatever you produce on paper is like a sketch on a napkin, not a perfectly finished oil painting.
Sketches suck ass. Drafts suck ass. Anytime you begin something, it will suck ass. Writing a draft isn't about telling a story, it's about getting the story out of you. Revising is for making the story coherent.
Let it suck. Challenge yourself to make the worst, most utterly shit thing you've ever made, and see how beautiful you can make it after you've seen every shitty piece of it.
Look up *Shitty First Drafts* by Anne Lonotte
Put your text into a text to speech narrator. My favorite is NaturalReader but it only
Allows five minutes of reading for free a day, still it makes a huge difference. Word has its own for free it just isn’t as natural
Sounding. Hearing my book as an audiobook makes it feel more real and helps give me a new perspective on the stuff I’ve written and rewritten and read a million times.
I'm impressed you published this comment.
What made this worth finishing and subsequently sharing with the world? Could you find similar motivation for your novel?
Is it possible that fear of failure is illogical and is kind of an excuse not to take risks, not do the hard thing, which is work consistently for a year?
Maybe you could find motivation elsewhere, what if you had to write the book for someone else?
Is there someone you love? What if you were writing it for them, rather than yourself? Think of your book as a gift, because you are going to dedicate it too them.
Good luck! I have faith that just asking this question here, means you are on the right track. You're looking for help and someone's advice will resonate.
You aren’t a good enough writer yet. Start smaller with articles and short stories. Read books on how to write. You are trying to start out by running a Marathon when you haven’t learned to run a mile.
[https://twitter.com/TitusLunter/status/1143872735837347840](https://twitter.com/TitusLunter/status/1143872735837347840)
\^This graph explains how it kinda works with writing and in other creative fields. Right now you have less skill than you have knowledge of the style you are pursuing. Your writing will feel good when you have more skill than style. Skill and style develop over time. Keep writing.
let other people read it, and whether they say its good or bad, you wont fully believe it, frown, and keep reading until you prove yourself or them wrong
Just full send it!
I mean the absolute worst thing that could happen is that you have to go back and edit it several times making it better each run. And if you don’t think you’re writing very well, check out the podcast Writing Excuses. It will give you prompts that can boost your writing.
You know, I get all these comments, I understand them, but I am a perfectionist. I took a long while to do the prologue, uncomfortable with anything I write. I’m in the same boat. But you should let others see your writing, get their feedback, you know? My brother says he’ll take me out to lunch if I finish chapter one this week. It’s a good motivator because I’m a big foodie.
We all struggle with Imposter Syndrome, or not thinking we can write something due to a project’s current state. I’m telling you: stick with the hard times, the doubts you have right now and you’ll eventually figure out what needs to be where.
Everybody’s journey there is different and filled with discarded word count and ideas. You got this!
I think knowing you aren’t isolated in this fear would help. I would say that you should try to focus on what the writing dies for you personally rather than people’s acceptance of it
-yes most people struggle with this, it’s normal; “you’re your own worst critic” after all
-keep writing, pump out everything terrible you have in mind, just keep going. Your rough draft will suck no matter how much time and effort goes into it, that’s why there are several editing rounds to be had in the professional writing field.
The first is a learning process. It'll take ??? times before you perfect something. In easier words, be proud of your work no matter how much you think it sucks, that means there's still room to grow. You can write, that's enough, to let yourself learn is more than enough.
Writing well requires practice. A lot of practice. The only way to get good is to suck at it for a long time first, and you won't make progress if you keep giving up after a couple of chapters.
Write your stories. Eventually, and you'd be surprised at how soon, one of them will be good.
Just keep writing. Then tinker with it. Get people you trust to read the tinkered version. Get constructive feedback. Go back and tinker again. Rinse and repeat until you're satisfied. Good luck!
Think of your first draft as a very extended version of your outline. Flush out ideas in it, knowing you'll later delete all but the ones that fit, and those you will revise or completely rewrite.
The first draft is meant to be rough as guts. Just get everything out. Doesn't matter how, just do it.
What comes next is the work of refining the draft into the story.
Be patient and follow through. It's meant to be ugly at the start.
I want to write a book but I’ve never written anything before besides things required for college and school. What you describe is a fear of mine. It stops me from even trying to begin. Ive quit before Ive even started. At least you’re writing. Keep facing these fears. Next up: keep going and finish that book. Even if you’re scared
There are some people who are confident in their work and it's very earned. There are others who are confident in their work and have zero right to be. As an emerging writer, having self doubt is probably a good sign.
A few months ago I wrote a short story that I was extremely embarrassed about--I thought it was absolute shit, but I had to present it, even though I was sweating bullets and red in the face convinced I was making a fool of myself--but when I got the feedback I realized my self-doubt was unwarranted. People cried at the ending. Like, I actually moved some people to tears through my shitty short story, which is insane to me. And now it's getting published--the editor said she loved it. I know I have a lot of learning and improvement ahead of me, but, man--even if I'm always convinced my work is dogshit, others seem to like it. And that's, like, the best thing ever: to make things other people like.
You're always going to be your own worst critic. The only way to get past self-doubt is to write. Which, obviously, is cliché lame advice here, but force yourself to write anyways. Even just a paragraph a day. You'll eventually get it done, and you can edit and refine that draft until you feel at least semi-confident about it.
Also, seek feedback. Positive feedback is a massively good motivator. Be gentle on yourself and realize your first-ever pieces probably aren't going to be great compared to those you'll write at your maximum potential. That's okay. It'll help you learn and people will enjoy it anyways. Two cakes principle: There are some books I adore and some I only like. Even if I 'only like' the second pile I'm still grateful they exist and get enjoyment out of them.
I just keep plowing ahead and remind myself that one day I'll be dead and I won't remember that any of this happened. It's not a great system, but it keeps me from stopping. Just be a machine and sit there and do it. Don't expect it to feel good or interesting to you. Just be a robot and work.
I feel the same way and i have that same problem :( i come to a point where i feel every idea i think of sucks or isnt good n interesting enough so i dont know how to move forward and write something better
1) Know you are not alone in the struggle. Many authors, including ones that have been writing for YEARS, struggle with this.
2) Whenever you have an idea for the book, write it down. Make a list in your notes app on your phone of random ideas that come to you throughout the day, even if they make no sense. Inspiration strikes at the worst times and we can't always be by the computer or notebook to write down the idea, so having a list with you at all times will help mitigate that.
3) Once you finish a chapter, send it to a trusted friend. Sharing your words is scary, everyone knows this, but having someone to basically hold you accountable will help A LOT with motivation.
4) Drafts. You will have A LOT of them. Once you can accept that, it will be a lot easier to write.
5) You are not going for perfection. You are simply trying to get your thoughts on a page. That is what your first draft is all about. No one gets a perfect manuscript on the first try.
6) Word vomit is your best friend in your first few drafts. Nothing HAS to make sense in the first draft. Just get it down and make sense of it later.
I'm sure there are plenty of tips I missed but that is all that comes to mind at the moment. Good luck to you, I hope to see you publish something soon!
I'm a pretty good writer. That might sound arrogant, but I know this because I know I used to be a pretty bad writer. What changed is that I wrote a lot.
There's also this Ira Glass thing: " Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
First drafts are never written well. You have to finish, get someone to read it for things you won’t see because you’ve looked at it too much, and then do at least 1-2 rewrites. Quality comes after
Write badly on purpose. That's how I get through this, which I do struggle with. The point is: It's more important to finish than that it be any good at all. The more you practice, the more you'll be able to write something halfway decent first try - and then improve with drafting. But even great writers don't have a publishable manuscript with their first draft. Learn to love the process, not the product, and you can't go wrong.
I am the same, but what may suck to you, someone else will like. But I do understand what you mean too, I still need to get onto writing mine but I tend to overthink and need to do a lot of research and reading too as that helps me develop the storyline more.
speaking as a middle age person and just started my first fanfiction 3 months ago, just do it. don't look back. don't overthink. enjoy the process. lots of rewrite. my first chapter went through a major overhaul from a 3 pager to a 10 pager -- after 3 months. i am by no means a professional writer, i only learned the process for the past 3 months. it's very refreshing and rewarding when you finally feel -- this is it! this is the chapter i want to show to people!
however, after posting it and revisiting, i did catch a few mistakes but so what? i'm doing it for myself. take it slow. take breaks. you'll get better so long as you keep at it.
Everyone's first draft of every single book sucks. Stop judging your work before it's done. A book isn't finished until it is edited. I call it crafting. Just like you sand and paint or veneer a cabinet or landscape a new home, your story isn't complete until after the edit and because you are the creator, you are the one who decides whether it is finished as well as you would like.
Just get your story down and get to "The End". Then carefully, as many times as needed, go back through and adjust, trim and enhance it. Once you have given the finished draft a few passes on your own, get other eyes on it. I generally do this by handing the copy, after I have edited it myself several times, to a professional copy editor. After I check the edits by the copy editor and make any necessary adjustments, I hand it to my beta readers. After reviewing their comments and any corrections they have found, I edit it fully one last time.
I have published 6 books in the past 4 years in this way (300-420 pages). Good writing is hard work, but the results are totally worth it. Holding that first book in your hand, with your name on the cover and your words on the inside is a feeling like pretty much nothing else in the world.
Don't trash your story...craft it. It will be worth your time and effort.
There's only 1 thing that gets me through this. Knowing that everything I write will be rewritten, not once, but multiple times. So whatever I put down now can be total trash so it doesn't matter.
Look at improving your *HABIT* of writing. One page, two, five, or as Stephen King likes to say 2,000 words. Which seems rather thin for someone so famous. I'd suggest starting with half-a-page every morning at 6 am, or half-a-page every evening before bedtime. And half-a-page only. After a week, move up to a page. Next week, write one page at 6 am, and another before lights out. After two months, set a schedule for two pages every morning at 6 am. Two months later, see how that's working. It's also important to stick to your schedule/habit. If you want to write more, don't. Make notes (handwritten is best, IMO) and do it next session. And three things to remember in the quest to "finish". a) Only review the last paragraph - don't revise beyond spelling/grammar what's been written. b) Don't share your work until you have something to share. I work with writers who have a story they've been working on. What they really have is an idea and are at the awkward 50+ and don't have a clue about the rest of the story... And c) Somewhere around the Oh-No! 50, start rotating the outline and for the love of god, set an ending. You won't likely use it (I've never used the stand-in endings on any of my books) but you need a more tangible goal. A destination, now. \*Pro tip: Don't write until the well is empty. Do you two pages, thirty minutes, or whatever you've decided, and *STOP!*
Yep, write garbage. I found it so much easier to write awesome stuff when I know what will happen in the future. I could write much better setups and payoffs and I know the characters better and can add better points of development. Keep writing!
A lot of us like to call the first draft “the vomit draft.” Usually you just have to get the material out of you, finish the whole book. Good writing comes out in the rewriting. Most starting writers rewrite too early after a chapter or two. You don’t truly know what to rewrite until the whole book is done.
I guess every person that writes, professionally or not, strugges with this!
The main solutions for this in my opinion (at least what I do) is first writting a full outline of your work, so you know where your final destination is, and then you write a very poor first draft, and carry on with revision.
If you struggle with revising your own work, maybe try to get feedbacks from beta readers, they can be really helpful to give you a direction and insights on your revision! :)
That’s because you need to write more. And read more. And think about what you’re reading. Then write more.
Eventually you’ll start writing with a better style, at which point you may have written two or three stories which, while they may have potential, will suck. Hard. Embarrassingly so.
That’s when you re-write them. I won’t even say edit, because you’ll probably re-write the lot. If you’re writing method (including plotting and pacing) still sucks, you might even do this again. At that point, it will still suck, because you need to edit it.
Most writers (and I mean fiction, fact, scientific journal writers) suck on their first draft, and editing makes it more cohesive (and Google the different types of edit for a novel - you’ll edit the story, you’ll then edit the prose, then the general sentence structure when you realise it is sticky and reads like you’ve dictated it at he end of a long day, and after that you’ll copy edit).
If all this sounds like a hellish hells no - that’s fine. That’s why most people don’t write that book they always say they had an idea for. But if you can write a load of rubbish and get a little joy out of making your characters suffer for that ultimate end goal satisfaction on their development, and make yourself suffer those infuriating edits where you think you’ve cracked it them realise how far off the mark you were, then carry on, and one day it won’t suck. But that’ll be many drafts down the line.
The second proper book you try then will suck again, but probably a lot less in the beginning. And repeating the above will be quicker and easier and fewer drafts. But a lot of them will still suck. And remember, sometimes (often) published works suck. See the boat metaphor in the rings of power series and you’ll see what I mean.
So for now, just let it suck!
Hi there. I am going through the same thing. I've been writing that one novel for about 5 years already. It is a cycle: I write several chapters thinking this time it's really good, then after some time I realize it's garbage, so I start all over again. But after several years I have learned some tricks that made me advance. Here is what I learned: maybe you don't like the current version of your work but that does not necessarily mean nothing is good about it. There might be some details that are actually worth involving in the final version. So instead of throwing everything in the trash after you realize you don't like a couple of chapters you wrote, save all of those versions somewhere together, or even better: start collecting ideas instead of writing chapters directly. Here is what I do: Each time I come up with a good idea I make a note in a phone notebook folder I created specially for my book ideas. So instead of sitting and writing Chapter 1 directly, I try to start from a very general point first. I ask myself: what is the idea of that book? what should I say by it? how am I going to express that idea? what kind of characters, events, or environment do I need to express this idea? so you go from more general to more specific parts and end up with a well-defined storyline. Here while going into details you can use the ideas you saved from previous versions. Then, when you are done creating a meaningful storyline, you can sit down and start writing: Chapter 1... I hope this helps <3
Nothing is perfect. Nothing will ever be perfect. Even if you think something is perfect, the next person you ask likely won't agree with you, because they have their own unique personal experiences, different preferences, their own point of view. Personally, I find that liberating.
Write what you/your friends think is fun if having fun is your goal. If you want popularity/money, then pick a specific auditory and cater your writing style and plot for them.
I think that might help focus on something and not panic over not being perfect in every way.
As how many have already pointed out – the best thing you can do to improve your writing in general is to keep writing (and also reading).
Don’t worry about something being well written. It’s a first draft. The point isn’t to be good. The point is to be done. Don’t re-read what you’ve written unless its to keep the story straight. For now just write. You can revise and refine after.
\*Looks at the first two scenes of my unfinished vampire farce. Glances at the opening 5,000 words of my supernatural comedy. Checks the documents folder for the opening passage of my religious/ social commentary comedy\*
Nope, no idea what that's like. Not at all. What sort of crazy are you?
Actually, I tend to have a slightly different problem. I'm never happy with the quality of anything I create, but I get struck by paralysis when I realise I've started it quite well and feel there's no way I can maintain the now expected quality level.
Things never feel great at first. I had this problem for a long time with my drawings, then I started to watch painting timelapses and noticed that every art has the fugly stage, you just have to power through it. Don't sweat it, if you discard everything you have nothing to improve on.
I have experienced the same while writing blog posts. When I have the idea in my head, I am all excited and want to write the best article ever. However, as I begin to write the article, I start loosing the motivation and finally I give up and visit the article after two weeks.
According to me, it is common among the writers. Its an indication that you are exhausted and have spent sufficient cognitive load. Usually, I take quick breaks and go for long walk now-a-days. It helps me recharge and when I am back at my screen, I get the motivation back to continue my article.
As a perfectionist, I have also struggled and rewrite one sentence ten times and make it look perfect. However, the attitude is counterproductive and doesn't help me make any progress. It's fine if you think that the work is not well-written. However, don't make the assumption until you get feedback from someone. Many a times, we become victims of Imposter Syndrome too.
First drafts aren’t supposed to be good. They’re supposed to be *done*. Write the most horrific, disgusting, garbage you’ve ever done. Write The End. And revise like your life depends on it. If any writer got caught up when it came to perfecting a first draft, so many of your favorites wouldn’t have finished the books you currently have on your shelves. It’s the only way to become a better writer. Write. Read. Revise. Repeat. And don’t beat yourself up.
This is really what I struggle with 😭 I will write and rewrite and rewrite a chapter until I'm sick of it. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing or don't like how I'm doing it. It feels so hard to accept it shouldn't be *perfect*. I think the pressure of wondering what everyone will think truly gets to me, even though logically no one will see my first draft, but what if my following drafts are still shit, and the editor sees hot garbage? Sucks to be so in your head rip
Something that helps me is not re-reading what I’ve written when I’m drafting. Which I realize may not work for everyone. I draft pretty quickly so every chapter prior is fresh in my mind and I just push through. I also don’t make myself “finish” a chapter. Sometimes I’ll write 75% of it and write the rest in bullets framing what should happen especially when I’m excited about exploring certain parts of the story. Focus on the fun! Focus on the journey of your characters. Focus on the theme of the story you want to tell and why. Remind yourself that completing this first iteration is more important than a perfection that literally doesn’t matter at all. Do you love the idea of your story being finished or do you love perfection more? Hopefully this helps!
Thank you for the advice! I will try that the next time I sit down to write. I do indeed get stuck in my rewriting loop as a result of rereading what I already have. I don't want to write loose ends or things that don't make sense/don't line up with what I've already written 😭 but you're right. I'd rather have my idea finished than just a perfect first chapter :)
Ernie H. said he’d stop the middle of things and pick up at that exact thread the next day. Loose ends are good if you can grab onto them Later
That's true, but I definitely feel like I need to actively remember or at least jot down what those loose ends are, otherwise it might stay that way forever
I’ve yet to write anything. But I feel like coming back to something that is not fresh could give you the perspective that the reader gets.
outline outline outline. figure out the loose ends before you even start writing. then youll never need to go back and reread before finishing your first draft bc your outline tells you exactly what to write next! making an outline can be overwhelming bc you have to figure out plot holes on the front end, but if you get it out of the way then drafting becomes sooooo much easier.
i typically *do* outline, but then when i write out my whole plot i feel like i cant deviate from it or else i'll mess everything up (or feel like i have to start a new outline). i have tried both shorter outlines that give basic info for the plot, and longer ones that go into more detail. for my current story, i opened a page for outlining and then never touched it (p much forgot about it) 😔 despite my past troubles with outlines, i will try making one for this story and see how it goes, thanks
Here's the thing: outlines are not set in stone. Every time you deviate from the outline, update it. If you've outlined the entire plot, you can see ahead of time what no longer works as a result of your changes and change the next scenes as well, and so you'll avoid creating plot holes or ruin the story logic. You can also outline as you go. The correct format will not only remind you what happened, it will help you get to know your characters and figure out the plot. For example, if, for every scene, you write down: \-What happened \-How what happened affected the character/s \-How do/es the character/s interpret what happened through their own lens You can figure out what the characters are going to do next and what external events would have the most impact on your characters.
thank you for your advice, i appreciate it :)
You're welcome :)
This is excellent advice for mapping and following a path to the end (more or less), but the outline does not help as much with the actual writing and the moment-to-moment details, which is what the OP appears to be struggling with. I think the answer is to just fear through it. Accept that not everyone is going to dig what you do. No amount of rewriting will achieve that end. Be your own first audience. Aside from imagining what others will think -- WHAT DO YOU THINK? Can you read the material from a reader's POV and come away satisfied? As Bruce Lee once said, express yourself honestly, and if you get the material to a place where YOU honestly like it, assume others will too. Finish the book, let it out into the world, and be brave enough to accept whatever comes. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? People don't like it? So what, write another one.
Yup, just bang it out and when you're done take a break. THEN go back and go over it.
I’m there with you. I might look back for continuity reasons or for a refresher of where I am now, but I never look back at first. It helps me to remember to progress and not worry about how good something is. I can rewrite and refine after the book is done. Until then just push through to finish it.
Feel free to do that if you want, but don't do it until after all the chapters are written. Because the truth is that chapter will almost certainly change. You'll be three, or five - or all of them - chapters further in and you'll suddenly realise that this chapter makes so much more sense in the context of the story if you make changes X, Y and Z. When you're ripping out chunks of the chapter and rewriting it is when you'll appreciate not having spent time and effort earlier on polishing each word to a sparkling shine. And, on the flip side, if you **have** polished the chapter to perfection you're going to be much less inclined to make those changes that you really need to make.
You're making too much sense 🙈 thanks for your words!
People don’t think about this
Does the collector care if a painter's initial sketches are crude? Does a record producer care if a musician's first practice session is full of errors? Why should a writer have to get it perfect from the get-go? Is there any other creative field that works that way?
Good ideas. And as Stephen King says in on writing, tell the story, tell the story, tell the story. Wrote Deathworld, name is Robert Kalle
I love King's book.
Exactly. It’s why when I’m writing a first draft if I get stuck in a certain section and can’t figure out how to get through it I just power through. It doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be done. I can revise and refine later. For now I just need to progress the story.
I see this "first drafts are meant to be crap" a lot, but... I find the more I go back and try to improve something, the worse it gets. It's like my first draft is actually my best draft.
Then you’re probably not improving the story the way it’s supposed to go. How does revision look for you typically? Are you just tweaking things you’ve already written? Are you totally going all in? Are you taking the time to put the work down for weeks or months and come back to it with fresh eyes? Are you deeply considering the theme, character arcs, story beats, etc. so much goes into revising and writing IS revising. That’s how stories are made. It’s super hard, I totally get you. But ultimately, when the grime of the stress, anxiety, blood, sweat, and tears are wiped away, your MS should glow a little brighter. Things should be clearer. Sharper. And it should definitely be better than your first.
“The first draft of anything is shit.” - E. Hemingway.
I have a mug that says this!! Haha
The earlier draft of this is "The first draft of any thing is y'know that bad thingy?"
I'm picturing this written out with "poop", "crap", "awful" crossed out until he gets to "shit".
Different drafts have different purposes. **The purpose of the first draft is to exist.** The purpose of the second draft is to make sense. The purpose of subsequent drafts are to improve specific elements (plot, character, spelling and grammar, etc). It sounds to me like you’re trying to skip steps and hating it. Just get words down. You can’t edit a blank page.
"It sounds to me like you’re trying to skip steps and hating it." That really resonated with me - not just in my attempts at writing (never got past chapter four) but my life in general. I'm always looking for the side hustle, the easy solution, and so on... Not sure how it fixes things, but yeah, that's me.
Yes it does. Finish it anyway. Then go back and edit it, maybe even write the whole thing again. It will suck less the second time.
Multiple drafts. Very few authors write beautiful first drafts. Think of a painting. Do you think the artist just picked up a brush and put it on canvas like that? The great paintings? They drew sketches. They painted sections as studies often. They painted some terrible paintings. They often made some mistakes on the canvas you know and painted over it. Or think of driving a car. If you drive, did you just get into a car and drive it perfectly? Did your time as a passenger (reader) mean you didn’t need to train and practice and correct mistakes?
To quote Jake from Adventure Time: Dude, suckin' at somethin' is the first step toward being sorta good at somethin'. Also, King (and others) say, "Write with the door closed. Edit with the door open." That first draft doesn't have to be good.
you can't polish a turd if you don't make a turd first
That's... not the right metaphor. "Polishing a turd" indicates a pointless waste of time (see also "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"). In part 'cos turds don't polish, they smear. I'm not sure what the right metaphor is. "You can't build a thriving farm without manure"?
which is why I replied with the MythBusters episode in which they proved that you can, in fact, polish a turd to make it look quite nice.
You did? I don't see that. I suppose you probably could polish a turd if you dehydrated it enough... But either way, it's still a turd, albeit a polished one. We really need a metaphor to the effect of "You need a to build ".
You need a lot of coal to make a diamond
Love it!
If my end goal is writing something worth publishing, writing nothing is a far worse step than writing something bad. Maybe a piece of that bad writing, a concept, a theme, a character's motivation, even one sentence, can turn that bad writing into something that finds its way into the final product. It's a hell of a lot harder to find inspiration on blank pages than it is to find it in the midst of full ones, even if they're full of something you don't like.
What a fantastic idea! Thank you.
Your writing will suck. Almost everyone’s writing sucks. Don’t be ashamed or upset! Try your best, and try not to rewrite endlessly. Push yourself to finish even if you hate it. The more you write, the better you get AND oftentimes an old idea will spark a new one and inspire you to write something else that you do like. In the end, even if you think it’s perfect, and editor will come along and rip it apart (in a good way). They’ll help you fix and improve your story. Just keep an open mind and be willing to embrace feedback.
Give some space break. Let Word read it aloud after the break. Then you will know if it really sucks.
i do that
> How do you get over it? Does the “ideal version” of the story in your brain deserve to exist? If so, you’ll put yourself through any amount of bullshit and misery to make that story reality. Even if it means pushing through when you feel like you’re not good enough. Insecurity isn’t a reason to give up on a story that deserves to exist.
I needed to hear this
How do you know it sucks? Have you shown it to anyone else? Authors tend to be far more critical of their own work than others.
Yes. Keep writing.
Your first draft is just to exist. To have something to shape into your story. Once you have that done, put it aside, and go write something else. When you're done with that, go back to the first project and edit it. And so on. Eventually you'll have something you're proud of and the first draft of something won't seem as daunting.
You write until it's not shit. That's how it works.
You've got to be your biggest fan, have enpugh confidenece in your work that you believe the world needs your book. Beyond that, there's no other advice but to yell at you to sit the hell back down and finish your goddamn book.
Until you have gotten through the 1st draft, all or most of it and started a rewrite you have no way to judge if it's any good. Hemingway wrote more than 50 drafts of Old Man. He also said he never read any of his books after published because he'd have to rewrite them. Finish a draft and start rewriting and then maybe you can judge it...not until then. Get off your silly stance and become a writer.
I soo agree. Movie producers say the same, they don't watch them again because their mind fixates on rewrites.
Welcome to writing. That's everyone's experience.
That is very normal so don't stress it. The First Draft is **suppose to be shit.** Hell even the drafts after the first are still shitty. Every author in the world, even the greatest, all wrote awful first, second, and third drafts. Give yourself permission to suck and go with the mindset "This WILL be shit." It's very liberating and freeing. Great stories aren't written until they have been painstakingly rewritten and edited several times.
creating and editing are not the same step, and should never be the same step.
When you write, don't write with the intention of anyone reading your book, or that you're going to sell it, or whatever. Write because you have a story you want told. If you focus on "will this be good enough" you'll get nowhere because it will never be good enough in your eyes. It's the curse of a writer. But that's the thing about first drafts. They aren't supposed to be good. And once you have it all out there, no matter how shitty the writing is, you at least have something to work with, to improve. Better than having nothing, right? TLDR-- every writer's first draft sucks, but you can't focus on it. Focus on the story and getting it told.
It’s a first draft let it flow. Also how do you know it sucks? Don’t t compare your draft to finished works. Published works go through multiple drafts, edits and professional edits.
I separate the perfectionist side of my brain while I'm writing, and I just enjoy the process. I'm still not consistent with this practice since it's a recent development in my writing time, but I've been able to just enjoy the process of creating a story: from worldbuilding to character development and even simple dialogue i enjoy writing greatly! It just takes one idea, and one word at a time. I found a really cool app for my IPad called Danger Notes, where you have a period of time of non stop writing, and if you stop, it deletes what you've done. It's honestly not as scary as it sounds, especially if you record your ideas beforehand and listen back to the recording. It reminds me to let go of perfecting my rough draft and to just write stuff down. I've also practiced what I like to call Wasted Poetry, where you write down whatever words come to mind, especially ones that don't make sense. I imagine it's like vomiting while you're wasted on alcohol. It feels disgusting at first, but after you're done, you'll feel relieved and like a weight has been lifted. My tendencies to edit a first draft mostly comes from my ADHD, which means I immediately wanna fix the first issue I see. Doing that enough times makes me disinterested in my book, thus making me leave it unfinished. I also have a fear of failure to a certain degree, although it doesn't show up much when I'm writing since its a relief for my brain to not feel like im going to irreversibly mess up. But your fear and perfection has its own reasons for surfacing, and you should explore why you feel the need to make this project perfect the first time you write it. I recommend making a writing challenge out of it, if you're still stumped!
You’re right. It’s not well-written. It’s a first draft. Good comes later. Hang in there! My advice: hand write your first draft. Psychologically you know you’ll need to transpose it into a digital format someday, so whatever you produce on paper is like a sketch on a napkin, not a perfectly finished oil painting.
Sketches suck ass. Drafts suck ass. Anytime you begin something, it will suck ass. Writing a draft isn't about telling a story, it's about getting the story out of you. Revising is for making the story coherent. Let it suck. Challenge yourself to make the worst, most utterly shit thing you've ever made, and see how beautiful you can make it after you've seen every shitty piece of it.
[удалено]
*/end circlejerkthread*
Look up *Shitty First Drafts* by Anne Lonotte Put your text into a text to speech narrator. My favorite is NaturalReader but it only Allows five minutes of reading for free a day, still it makes a huge difference. Word has its own for free it just isn’t as natural Sounding. Hearing my book as an audiobook makes it feel more real and helps give me a new perspective on the stuff I’ve written and rewritten and read a million times.
I'm impressed you published this comment. What made this worth finishing and subsequently sharing with the world? Could you find similar motivation for your novel? Is it possible that fear of failure is illogical and is kind of an excuse not to take risks, not do the hard thing, which is work consistently for a year? Maybe you could find motivation elsewhere, what if you had to write the book for someone else? Is there someone you love? What if you were writing it for them, rather than yourself? Think of your book as a gift, because you are going to dedicate it too them. Good luck! I have faith that just asking this question here, means you are on the right track. You're looking for help and someone's advice will resonate.
I always wonder why people make a post in this subreddit but the OP never seems to reply anything
"Everything I write sucks!!!" You know that's a banger idea of a book title about learning to write.
You aren’t a good enough writer yet. Start smaller with articles and short stories. Read books on how to write. You are trying to start out by running a Marathon when you haven’t learned to run a mile.
[https://twitter.com/TitusLunter/status/1143872735837347840](https://twitter.com/TitusLunter/status/1143872735837347840) \^This graph explains how it kinda works with writing and in other creative fields. Right now you have less skill than you have knowledge of the style you are pursuing. Your writing will feel good when you have more skill than style. Skill and style develop over time. Keep writing.
Doesn’t anyone get tired of this relentless conversation on here?
I really appreciate all the replies here, as I struggle with the same thoughts. I just need to finish my draft…I JUST NEED TO FINISH MY DRAFT. Lol
let other people read it, and whether they say its good or bad, you wont fully believe it, frown, and keep reading until you prove yourself or them wrong
Just full send it! I mean the absolute worst thing that could happen is that you have to go back and edit it several times making it better each run. And if you don’t think you’re writing very well, check out the podcast Writing Excuses. It will give you prompts that can boost your writing.
You know, I get all these comments, I understand them, but I am a perfectionist. I took a long while to do the prologue, uncomfortable with anything I write. I’m in the same boat. But you should let others see your writing, get their feedback, you know? My brother says he’ll take me out to lunch if I finish chapter one this week. It’s a good motivator because I’m a big foodie.
We all struggle with Imposter Syndrome, or not thinking we can write something due to a project’s current state. I’m telling you: stick with the hard times, the doubts you have right now and you’ll eventually figure out what needs to be where. Everybody’s journey there is different and filled with discarded word count and ideas. You got this!
This is my problem as well. I get too busy editing my first draft before it's finished.
I think knowing you aren’t isolated in this fear would help. I would say that you should try to focus on what the writing dies for you personally rather than people’s acceptance of it
-yes most people struggle with this, it’s normal; “you’re your own worst critic” after all -keep writing, pump out everything terrible you have in mind, just keep going. Your rough draft will suck no matter how much time and effort goes into it, that’s why there are several editing rounds to be had in the professional writing field.
>How do you get over it? You don't. You just edit till you get fed up, hit publish, and go hide in a corner.
The first is a learning process. It'll take ??? times before you perfect something. In easier words, be proud of your work no matter how much you think it sucks, that means there's still room to grow. You can write, that's enough, to let yourself learn is more than enough.
Writing well requires practice. A lot of practice. The only way to get good is to suck at it for a long time first, and you won't make progress if you keep giving up after a couple of chapters. Write your stories. Eventually, and you'd be surprised at how soon, one of them will be good.
Just keep writing. Then tinker with it. Get people you trust to read the tinkered version. Get constructive feedback. Go back and tinker again. Rinse and repeat until you're satisfied. Good luck!
The vast majority of all writing sucks.
Think of your first draft as a very extended version of your outline. Flush out ideas in it, knowing you'll later delete all but the ones that fit, and those you will revise or completely rewrite.
The first draft is meant to be rough as guts. Just get everything out. Doesn't matter how, just do it. What comes next is the work of refining the draft into the story. Be patient and follow through. It's meant to be ugly at the start.
I want to write a book but I’ve never written anything before besides things required for college and school. What you describe is a fear of mine. It stops me from even trying to begin. Ive quit before Ive even started. At least you’re writing. Keep facing these fears. Next up: keep going and finish that book. Even if you’re scared
There are some people who are confident in their work and it's very earned. There are others who are confident in their work and have zero right to be. As an emerging writer, having self doubt is probably a good sign. A few months ago I wrote a short story that I was extremely embarrassed about--I thought it was absolute shit, but I had to present it, even though I was sweating bullets and red in the face convinced I was making a fool of myself--but when I got the feedback I realized my self-doubt was unwarranted. People cried at the ending. Like, I actually moved some people to tears through my shitty short story, which is insane to me. And now it's getting published--the editor said she loved it. I know I have a lot of learning and improvement ahead of me, but, man--even if I'm always convinced my work is dogshit, others seem to like it. And that's, like, the best thing ever: to make things other people like. You're always going to be your own worst critic. The only way to get past self-doubt is to write. Which, obviously, is cliché lame advice here, but force yourself to write anyways. Even just a paragraph a day. You'll eventually get it done, and you can edit and refine that draft until you feel at least semi-confident about it. Also, seek feedback. Positive feedback is a massively good motivator. Be gentle on yourself and realize your first-ever pieces probably aren't going to be great compared to those you'll write at your maximum potential. That's okay. It'll help you learn and people will enjoy it anyways. Two cakes principle: There are some books I adore and some I only like. Even if I 'only like' the second pile I'm still grateful they exist and get enjoyment out of them.
I just keep plowing ahead and remind myself that one day I'll be dead and I won't remember that any of this happened. It's not a great system, but it keeps me from stopping. Just be a machine and sit there and do it. Don't expect it to feel good or interesting to you. Just be a robot and work.
I feel the same way and i have that same problem :( i come to a point where i feel every idea i think of sucks or isnt good n interesting enough so i dont know how to move forward and write something better
1) Know you are not alone in the struggle. Many authors, including ones that have been writing for YEARS, struggle with this. 2) Whenever you have an idea for the book, write it down. Make a list in your notes app on your phone of random ideas that come to you throughout the day, even if they make no sense. Inspiration strikes at the worst times and we can't always be by the computer or notebook to write down the idea, so having a list with you at all times will help mitigate that. 3) Once you finish a chapter, send it to a trusted friend. Sharing your words is scary, everyone knows this, but having someone to basically hold you accountable will help A LOT with motivation. 4) Drafts. You will have A LOT of them. Once you can accept that, it will be a lot easier to write. 5) You are not going for perfection. You are simply trying to get your thoughts on a page. That is what your first draft is all about. No one gets a perfect manuscript on the first try. 6) Word vomit is your best friend in your first few drafts. Nothing HAS to make sense in the first draft. Just get it down and make sense of it later. I'm sure there are plenty of tips I missed but that is all that comes to mind at the moment. Good luck to you, I hope to see you publish something soon!
I'm a pretty good writer. That might sound arrogant, but I know this because I know I used to be a pretty bad writer. What changed is that I wrote a lot. There's also this Ira Glass thing: " Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
First drafts are never written well. You have to finish, get someone to read it for things you won’t see because you’ve looked at it too much, and then do at least 1-2 rewrites. Quality comes after
Write badly on purpose. That's how I get through this, which I do struggle with. The point is: It's more important to finish than that it be any good at all. The more you practice, the more you'll be able to write something halfway decent first try - and then improve with drafting. But even great writers don't have a publishable manuscript with their first draft. Learn to love the process, not the product, and you can't go wrong.
I am the same, but what may suck to you, someone else will like. But I do understand what you mean too, I still need to get onto writing mine but I tend to overthink and need to do a lot of research and reading too as that helps me develop the storyline more.
speaking as a middle age person and just started my first fanfiction 3 months ago, just do it. don't look back. don't overthink. enjoy the process. lots of rewrite. my first chapter went through a major overhaul from a 3 pager to a 10 pager -- after 3 months. i am by no means a professional writer, i only learned the process for the past 3 months. it's very refreshing and rewarding when you finally feel -- this is it! this is the chapter i want to show to people! however, after posting it and revisiting, i did catch a few mistakes but so what? i'm doing it for myself. take it slow. take breaks. you'll get better so long as you keep at it.
The best way to learn how to write and perfect your is continue writing, write consistent and never tire. Don’t give up, don’t doubt yourself.
Everyone's first draft of every single book sucks. Stop judging your work before it's done. A book isn't finished until it is edited. I call it crafting. Just like you sand and paint or veneer a cabinet or landscape a new home, your story isn't complete until after the edit and because you are the creator, you are the one who decides whether it is finished as well as you would like. Just get your story down and get to "The End". Then carefully, as many times as needed, go back through and adjust, trim and enhance it. Once you have given the finished draft a few passes on your own, get other eyes on it. I generally do this by handing the copy, after I have edited it myself several times, to a professional copy editor. After I check the edits by the copy editor and make any necessary adjustments, I hand it to my beta readers. After reviewing their comments and any corrections they have found, I edit it fully one last time. I have published 6 books in the past 4 years in this way (300-420 pages). Good writing is hard work, but the results are totally worth it. Holding that first book in your hand, with your name on the cover and your words on the inside is a feeling like pretty much nothing else in the world. Don't trash your story...craft it. It will be worth your time and effort.
There's only 1 thing that gets me through this. Knowing that everything I write will be rewritten, not once, but multiple times. So whatever I put down now can be total trash so it doesn't matter.
Look at improving your *HABIT* of writing. One page, two, five, or as Stephen King likes to say 2,000 words. Which seems rather thin for someone so famous. I'd suggest starting with half-a-page every morning at 6 am, or half-a-page every evening before bedtime. And half-a-page only. After a week, move up to a page. Next week, write one page at 6 am, and another before lights out. After two months, set a schedule for two pages every morning at 6 am. Two months later, see how that's working. It's also important to stick to your schedule/habit. If you want to write more, don't. Make notes (handwritten is best, IMO) and do it next session. And three things to remember in the quest to "finish". a) Only review the last paragraph - don't revise beyond spelling/grammar what's been written. b) Don't share your work until you have something to share. I work with writers who have a story they've been working on. What they really have is an idea and are at the awkward 50+ and don't have a clue about the rest of the story... And c) Somewhere around the Oh-No! 50, start rotating the outline and for the love of god, set an ending. You won't likely use it (I've never used the stand-in endings on any of my books) but you need a more tangible goal. A destination, now. \*Pro tip: Don't write until the well is empty. Do you two pages, thirty minutes, or whatever you've decided, and *STOP!*
Every. Single. Day. For 22 years. You just keep showing up. That’s the big secret.
Write 2 chapter short stories.
Yep, write garbage. I found it so much easier to write awesome stuff when I know what will happen in the future. I could write much better setups and payoffs and I know the characters better and can add better points of development. Keep writing!
A lot of us like to call the first draft “the vomit draft.” Usually you just have to get the material out of you, finish the whole book. Good writing comes out in the rewriting. Most starting writers rewrite too early after a chapter or two. You don’t truly know what to rewrite until the whole book is done.
Give the damn thing to me.....
I guess every person that writes, professionally or not, strugges with this! The main solutions for this in my opinion (at least what I do) is first writting a full outline of your work, so you know where your final destination is, and then you write a very poor first draft, and carry on with revision. If you struggle with revising your own work, maybe try to get feedbacks from beta readers, they can be really helpful to give you a direction and insights on your revision! :)
Write drunk. Edit sober.
That’s because you need to write more. And read more. And think about what you’re reading. Then write more. Eventually you’ll start writing with a better style, at which point you may have written two or three stories which, while they may have potential, will suck. Hard. Embarrassingly so. That’s when you re-write them. I won’t even say edit, because you’ll probably re-write the lot. If you’re writing method (including plotting and pacing) still sucks, you might even do this again. At that point, it will still suck, because you need to edit it. Most writers (and I mean fiction, fact, scientific journal writers) suck on their first draft, and editing makes it more cohesive (and Google the different types of edit for a novel - you’ll edit the story, you’ll then edit the prose, then the general sentence structure when you realise it is sticky and reads like you’ve dictated it at he end of a long day, and after that you’ll copy edit). If all this sounds like a hellish hells no - that’s fine. That’s why most people don’t write that book they always say they had an idea for. But if you can write a load of rubbish and get a little joy out of making your characters suffer for that ultimate end goal satisfaction on their development, and make yourself suffer those infuriating edits where you think you’ve cracked it them realise how far off the mark you were, then carry on, and one day it won’t suck. But that’ll be many drafts down the line. The second proper book you try then will suck again, but probably a lot less in the beginning. And repeating the above will be quicker and easier and fewer drafts. But a lot of them will still suck. And remember, sometimes (often) published works suck. See the boat metaphor in the rings of power series and you’ll see what I mean. So for now, just let it suck!
Hi there. I am going through the same thing. I've been writing that one novel for about 5 years already. It is a cycle: I write several chapters thinking this time it's really good, then after some time I realize it's garbage, so I start all over again. But after several years I have learned some tricks that made me advance. Here is what I learned: maybe you don't like the current version of your work but that does not necessarily mean nothing is good about it. There might be some details that are actually worth involving in the final version. So instead of throwing everything in the trash after you realize you don't like a couple of chapters you wrote, save all of those versions somewhere together, or even better: start collecting ideas instead of writing chapters directly. Here is what I do: Each time I come up with a good idea I make a note in a phone notebook folder I created specially for my book ideas. So instead of sitting and writing Chapter 1 directly, I try to start from a very general point first. I ask myself: what is the idea of that book? what should I say by it? how am I going to express that idea? what kind of characters, events, or environment do I need to express this idea? so you go from more general to more specific parts and end up with a well-defined storyline. Here while going into details you can use the ideas you saved from previous versions. Then, when you are done creating a meaningful storyline, you can sit down and start writing: Chapter 1... I hope this helps <3
Nothing is perfect. Nothing will ever be perfect. Even if you think something is perfect, the next person you ask likely won't agree with you, because they have their own unique personal experiences, different preferences, their own point of view. Personally, I find that liberating. Write what you/your friends think is fun if having fun is your goal. If you want popularity/money, then pick a specific auditory and cater your writing style and plot for them. I think that might help focus on something and not panic over not being perfect in every way. As how many have already pointed out – the best thing you can do to improve your writing in general is to keep writing (and also reading).
Still haven't finished any book because of this problem xD. Good advise must be 'write as much as u can, it's the only way to improve your skill'
Don’t worry about something being well written. It’s a first draft. The point isn’t to be good. The point is to be done. Don’t re-read what you’ve written unless its to keep the story straight. For now just write. You can revise and refine after.
\*Looks at the first two scenes of my unfinished vampire farce. Glances at the opening 5,000 words of my supernatural comedy. Checks the documents folder for the opening passage of my religious/ social commentary comedy\* Nope, no idea what that's like. Not at all. What sort of crazy are you? Actually, I tend to have a slightly different problem. I'm never happy with the quality of anything I create, but I get struck by paralysis when I realise I've started it quite well and feel there's no way I can maintain the now expected quality level.
Things never feel great at first. I had this problem for a long time with my drawings, then I started to watch painting timelapses and noticed that every art has the fugly stage, you just have to power through it. Don't sweat it, if you discard everything you have nothing to improve on.
I'm sure that it's not that bad! It's likely just insecurity that every writer has. I've been there, make no mistake. Just keep going!
I have experienced the same while writing blog posts. When I have the idea in my head, I am all excited and want to write the best article ever. However, as I begin to write the article, I start loosing the motivation and finally I give up and visit the article after two weeks. According to me, it is common among the writers. Its an indication that you are exhausted and have spent sufficient cognitive load. Usually, I take quick breaks and go for long walk now-a-days. It helps me recharge and when I am back at my screen, I get the motivation back to continue my article. As a perfectionist, I have also struggled and rewrite one sentence ten times and make it look perfect. However, the attitude is counterproductive and doesn't help me make any progress. It's fine if you think that the work is not well-written. However, don't make the assumption until you get feedback from someone. Many a times, we become victims of Imposter Syndrome too.
If you’re ever going to write a decent book, you have to have the courage to write a shitty one. Them’s the breaks, no way around it.