First Drafts
May. 9th, 2009 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyoutenshi posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
writersDo you have any odd tendencies or quirks when it comes to your first drafts? Are they overly long, or a little too brief? Do you write them fast or slow? Are there any problems or tropes that you can't seem to stop from popping up?
My first drafts tend to have very 'flat' and clinical writing ("She walked to the door. She could hear a sound like running water."), miss out important description details (characters pick up weapons, keys, or even go through doors that weren't there before), and I hardly ever touch on any 'themes' or particularly deep ideas.
My aim for first drafts is basically to get my characters from start to finish with as little fuss as possible. When I sit down to do some work, I'll simplify that by saying I want them from event D to event E. I write quickly, refuse to edit, and only occasionally stop to ponder the phrasing of a sentence. Sometimes I'll even repeat an earlier sentence because I think it'd look better in this paragraph right here, rather than at the start.
They're also really short. I'm working on a novelisation fic right now, I've written nearly all of the high-tension scenes, and the only parts I haven't yet worked on are the sections where my portagonist has to move from danger A to danger B. I'm at about roughly 2,000 words right now. There are fics out there with chapters longer than that. I remember one of Stephen King's most famous pieces of advice was that between first and second drafts, you should lose about 10% of your wordcount, but for me it's the complete opposite.
My first drafts tend to have very 'flat' and clinical writing ("She walked to the door. She could hear a sound like running water."), miss out important description details (characters pick up weapons, keys, or even go through doors that weren't there before), and I hardly ever touch on any 'themes' or particularly deep ideas.
My aim for first drafts is basically to get my characters from start to finish with as little fuss as possible. When I sit down to do some work, I'll simplify that by saying I want them from event D to event E. I write quickly, refuse to edit, and only occasionally stop to ponder the phrasing of a sentence. Sometimes I'll even repeat an earlier sentence because I think it'd look better in this paragraph right here, rather than at the start.
They're also really short. I'm working on a novelisation fic right now, I've written nearly all of the high-tension scenes, and the only parts I haven't yet worked on are the sections where my portagonist has to move from danger A to danger B. I'm at about roughly 2,000 words right now. There are fics out there with chapters longer than that. I remember one of Stephen King's most famous pieces of advice was that between first and second drafts, you should lose about 10% of your wordcount, but for me it's the complete opposite.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-10 06:23 am (UTC)frankly i've never understood the entire first and second draft kinda thing... at least i don't consciously think of them that way. i suppose that for me it's not so important to plot down everything first, but to complete each chapter until satisfaction until everything is written.
like sterling said, don't compare yourself to stephen king; the way you two work are fundamentally different and there's nothing wrong with doing things your own way if that's what works. :)