Why a messy first draft is a great thing

My home is a hive of activity. A revolving door of kids and friends. Non-stop action in the kitchen (three boys...'nuff said). A mountain of laundry that might dwindle, but never disappears. A pile of "to do" stuff stacked on my kitchen island.

Grumble. Grumble. Grumble.

One day, while grumbling, I had an epiphany. Be thankful for this hive of activity, because that means your home is active, bustling, and full. Our kids are already growing up too fast, and soon all this activity will move on. A messy, crazy home means it's lived in.

I likened it to writing. When pounding out that first draft, our minds are buzzing with activity. Our thoughts might be scattered, and our mountain of ideas demands attention. And the end product? If your first drafts are anything like mine, they're a mess. But here's the good thing:

A messy first draft means you've finished a book.

You didn't just dream about it, or talk about it. You did it. You accomplished something that many people wish they could do. No matter where our writing journeys take us, this alone is worth celebrating. The mess, whether it's minor or major, can be cleaned up. Remember the great advice we've all heard--"First get it written, then get it right," and "You can't revise a blank page."

Would I like to have a perfectly clean and calm home? No, because that would mean our kids are grown and gone.

Would I like a perfect first draft? It would be nice, but it's not possible. In my opinion, the only perfect books are the ones in our heads, not yet written. It's the sitting down and writing, the finishing, and the revision, that separates the wishers from the doers.

Hopefully we can all appreciate our messy houses, and messy manuscripts. Activity, whether in our homes or in our minds, is a great thing.

Do you think it's ok to have a messy first draft, because that means you've finished a book? And if you haven't finished a manuscript, what's holding you back? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Final question--is your laundry mountain always present, or is that just mine?

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What We Hear vs. What's Said

Is it just me, or is it sometimes difficult to really hear what others are saying?

A critique partner might say, "I like your beginning, but this scene isn't believable."

We hear, "Your writing stinks. I had to hold my nose while reading your manuscript."

Another reader might say, "Your characters are likable, but I think you need to flesh them out a little more."

We hear, "You are SO not a writer. A real writer would have nailed the characters in draft one."

A writer friend might say, "Good luck with your revisions."

We hear, "Yeah, good luck with that pile of scrap paper."

When our writer friends sandwich the good comments around the not-so-good, it's easy to focus only on the parts that don't work. It would help if we also remember to appreciate what we did right.

No manuscript is perfect on the first draft, but I have to believe that most are loaded with nuggets of good stuff. We just have to sort it all out.

How about you? Do you tend to focus on the negative comments instead of the positive?

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Emergency! First Draft Disaster

In his book Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell mentions Sol Stein's technique for revision. It's called the triage method, where you work from the big issues down to the small.

The dictionary states "Triage is used on the battlefield, at disaster sites, and in hospital emergency rooms when limited medical resources must be allocated."

I get it: first draft = disaster. This reduces the pressure to make the first draft a beautiful, perfect thing. Now that we know it will be a disaster, how do we fix it? Bell suggests tackling revisions in this order:

1. Let it cool. Bell suggests two or three weeks.
2. Get mentally prepared. Bell recommends thinking of revision as getting to take the test over and over again, improving our grade along the way.
3. Read it through. This is where Bell mentions triage. Start the revision looking for overall story and structure, then read it again for small details.
4. Brood over what you've done. Bell suggests we think about our draft for five to seven days. Jot down notes.
5. Write the second draft.
6. Refine. Set it aside for a week, then read through it again to ensure character, plot, scenes and theme are the way we want them.
7. Polish. Check for hook, chapter endings, action & reaction, and grammar.

Bell quotes Ray Bradbury. "Let your characters have their way. Let your secret life be lived. Then at your leisure, in the succeeding weeks, months or years, you let the story cool off and then, instead of rewriting, you relive it."

Ahhh, relive it. I like that. Now, off to create my own disaster!

What techniques do you use when revising your manuscript?

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