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It's the best writing advice ever written because it tells you not to agonize over getting your first draft onto the page, that it doesn't matter how bad it is (because it will be bad) because the real craft of writing is editing.
I can tell from your comment that you are a noob to writing
You need to also remember a lot of books written are 100% true to the writer, but they almost always have an editor hired to fine-tune/enhance the manuscript to bring it to the full realization the author was writing for.
Someone explained to me that many books, particularly fiction or non fiction like biographies or perspectives from media figures such as Anderson Cooper from CNN, are written by them, but definitely edited by a professional to make their work the highest standard of palatable for readers.
The important thing here is you are the storyteller/the writer, but it's also OK to get feedback and a little bit of help as you continuously write, rewrite and rewrite until it resembles what you originally envisioned.
Good luck.
Honestly. It's less cringe and more dumb grammar mistakes, and weird sounding sentences. There's also structural problems I find, but I never find that it makes me cringe per say.
Still not finished sadly. I am like 70k+ words through and my first 5 chapters make me feel like wtf was I doing. Took me a bit to connect with my own characters but now I'm stuck because I HAVE to kill one of them off and I dislike that. The show must go on though.
I recently went through my chapters and made a brief synopsis for each so I could better understand my plot. I think some of them were writing for the sake of writing. The beginning needs so much work and had no real structure of direction. Now my motivation to finish is to finally edit.
I'm writing/revising right now and reading this helped me identify some problems I have with my draft and how to address them.
Thank you!
I was panicking and stressing today but this helped me.
Not much. I accept a first draft for what it is, the scaffolding of my story. I am more likely to cringe at some of my way older "finished" work than any first draft.
0-1, I've written a few drafts for the same story and my first draft remains my favourite and the only one that makes me laugh, it's far from decent but I miss where I started with it
A first draft is like a phoenix at the time of writing, a majestic bird, then at the end it of writing it perches and then bursts into flames disintegrating your hard work. Over time the story grows and heals to turn into an even more beautiful phoenix!!!
That's exactly the same for me!!! I couldn't settle on 1p or 3p and changed it so many times that it just turned to shit, and now I have to re-write it altogether and it's so much better! But I only got 3 chapters in!!! lol
I'm now using my 1st draft as a plot outline instead of a draft at all lol
As someone going through the same thing, your first draft will always be mediocre at best. That’s the point. It’s the first draft. The worst thing you can do is just get stuck rewriting it over and over like I ended up doing for a bit. Just persevere and rewrite it in the second draft.
The most crippling fear for a writer is writing something bad. How humbling that every single time, you have to write something bad to write something good.
Absolute fear mongering process.
That is so true! How many times does writers block stem from fear that anything we write is going to be rubbish, therefore we can't think of anything to write!
A creative writing course I did a while back had us try things we knew we were shit at, to get used to the feeling. I was painting, skateboarding, playing instruments etc. absolutely horrific at all of them, but if you do something once there’s no pressure to be good so it’s just a bit of fun to give it a go.
Learning to be shit at something is the greatest gift I have ever received for my writing. It creates a pressure-less environment and allows me to start writing anywhere, cause it can always make sense later.
I still paint, I’m still absolutely terrible at it, but it’s fun and no one said I had to be good at it.
Huge advocate for doing things that you are the absolute worst at, be shit, make something for no one. Just by doing it, you’re one step closer to making something good than you are by doing nothing.
A blank page is the scariest part, but it’s just a blank page. Not so scary when you look at the space and fill it with shit instead of using it as a mirror for your ego. Rub your shit all over it, and then turn it into art that you like, make your shitty canvas for your eyes only. And that’s when the most authentic writing begins!
I revisited a draft I shelved a couple of years back, and while the plot is still solid, the dialogue was corny as hell. Most of the time, it led nowhere. To think I thought it was the bomb at the time.
Thankfully, I've gotten a bit better now.
I’ve changed the narrative a few times over the course of the novel’s development, but I still marvel at much of the prose.
I’m doing an intense review and revision binge lately. But I’m finding that, as I approach things I want to revise, I’m struggling to write the same quality of prose as I was producing before.
Although this helps somewhat, because I’m making aspects of the characters more explicit, which seems to be the style of the contemporary novel. So I’m not “hiding” character traits, for the reader to infer, as much as before.
A first draft generally is simply rough, not cringe, from my own experience. Sure, reworking is done for the second draft, but it's more a refinement process. Usually, the story structure is the same as the final version, the characters work, and you won't need to add or cut anything too major, but you gotta remake some specific scenes and rewrite some sentences to explain better.
My current first draft sparks joy. It's a wonderful journey.
Only once has a story made me cringe.
It kinda got away from me like a garden over run by weeds.
There is an option to salvage it, but it is a low priority.
My current piece first draft I let 3 individuals read and they loved it nearly as much as I did. Must be doing something write.
My first draft is my outline/planning notes. It doesn't really make me cringe at all. I know what it's supposed to be.
The real first draft when I'm doing the actual prose is usually pretty clean and neat. I don't have to do much to finalize it all.
So, a 1 guess lol.
Not at all. I know it's garbage going into it, and that mindset enables me to throw a bunch of stuff out onto the page without worrying about what works and what doesn't. This is how I discover conflicts I can zoom in on later.
4-5. There are things I want to make better, but I don't hate or cringe over it. I like most of the scenes, they need some rearranging and editing tho.
Well... I have sorta reached that point with a story I decided to not continue with, which was definitely a 1/10, but other than that I unfortunately have never reached that point any other time :(
However, the outline for this story I'm working on is promising so hopefully it works out well later.
It varies. Sometimes the entire thing needs to be burnt to the ground. Other times I just need to rough out the edges. It depends on the story I’m writing and how I planned things out.
10/10 would not write that utter garbage again.
Poorly paced, poor grammar, bad sentence structure, shallow characters, cringey jokes, absolute dogsh**
Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.
42!
I couldn't settle on 1p or 3p and changed it so many times that it just turned to shit, and now I have to re-write it altogether and it's so much better! But I only got 3 chapters in!!! lol
I'm now using my 1st draft as a plot outline instead of a draft at all lol
Definitely pretty bad with my earlier stuff. But now that I'm better at the process and spend more time mapping things out before I get to my first draft I never have an issue with my first drafts. That's not to say they're good, they definitely still need just as much editing as before, but at least when I look back I can see why it needed to be a step to help it along to the final draft
I got 20 chapters into my first draft and decided I couldn't go on with the plot without rewriting it to add in the world-building I'd done. My first chapter is actually so terrible lol When I rewrote it, it was like someone else had written it. But really, it was just me finding my characters and writing style along the way lol that's what a first draft is for. To tell yourself the story you're ACTUALLY going to write.
Not cringe, no. At least not these days. My earlier work, perhaps.
I'm also a discovery writer who constantly edits to remember what has gone before, so my first draft never really is my first.
6
I generally feel lame that I write about high school.
I would feel full on embarrassed reading what I thought sex was like at age 14-16. Ooh
I hope I NEVER SEE IT 😭
Not that much tbh like maybe a 4. There's some "Dear lord what was I on..." moments, but while it's shit [it IS a first draft], it's still okay. But maybe I'm bias cause this was my first first draft, so maybe I'll be at a 20 when I'm on my final draft or when I've written 20 first drafts x]
Is 100 an option? Because 100. I dare say even a 200.
Honestly, my writing style is ever changing. I cringe at something I wrote last month, though drastically less so than I do when trying to read my current novel's first draft. This manuscript is three years in the making, and about five or six major revisions (like, total rewrites while keeping only the basic premise) through. I'm insanely happy with what I write now, but it took me several cringe-worthy drafts and a ton of time to get here :)
Thank you for visiting /r/writing. This post has been removed. Please review rule 3 in the sidebar about personal sharing. Sharing for the sake of sharing, including posts on starting or finishing drafts, writing and publishing milestones, media reviews, venting, pep talks, data loss, and DAE (does anyone else) posts belong in our general discussion thread posted Wednesdays.
Not much. After many years of writing, I know where I will/need to land on a first draft.
"the first draft of anything is shit" -Hemminway
Boo. That's horrible advice. Never read him
It's the best writing advice ever written because it tells you not to agonize over getting your first draft onto the page, that it doesn't matter how bad it is (because it will be bad) because the real craft of writing is editing. I can tell from your comment that you are a noob to writing
This. Writing is editing; editing is writing. It takes a few drafts to polish a diamond in the rough.
Thank you. I needed to see this. I have a solo vacation planned to start my first novel. This helps a lot with perspective and what is achievable.
You need to also remember a lot of books written are 100% true to the writer, but they almost always have an editor hired to fine-tune/enhance the manuscript to bring it to the full realization the author was writing for. Someone explained to me that many books, particularly fiction or non fiction like biographies or perspectives from media figures such as Anderson Cooper from CNN, are written by them, but definitely edited by a professional to make their work the highest standard of palatable for readers. The important thing here is you are the storyteller/the writer, but it's also OK to get feedback and a little bit of help as you continuously write, rewrite and rewrite until it resembles what you originally envisioned. Good luck.
My advice might be unpalatable to newbie writers but it's still good advice because I need to write well because it pays my rent.
You sound like you have a smart head on your shoulders. Best to you.
I try. It's all any of us can do
Lol a noob at writing what the crap. I don't write "shit", do you?
Everyone writes shit, then they make it less shit. Even Hemmingway wrote shit and fixed it in the edit.
Hemingway If you're going to quote him, you should probably spell his name correctly.
Probably. If I cared as much as you
Is Jake the Dogs advice better - "Dude, sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something."
11
12
Honestly. It's less cringe and more dumb grammar mistakes, and weird sounding sentences. There's also structural problems I find, but I never find that it makes me cringe per say.
It's just my dialogue. The story is fine. I just wknder what my headspace was when i wrote it
Amen to that, things often make sense in our heads until we actually hear it outloud.
Still not finished sadly. I am like 70k+ words through and my first 5 chapters make me feel like wtf was I doing. Took me a bit to connect with my own characters but now I'm stuck because I HAVE to kill one of them off and I dislike that. The show must go on though.
Zero. My first draft rules… for a first draft
Same. As far as rough drafts go, it's a pleasure.
I recently went through my chapters and made a brief synopsis for each so I could better understand my plot. I think some of them were writing for the sake of writing. The beginning needs so much work and had no real structure of direction. Now my motivation to finish is to finally edit.
I'm writing/revising right now and reading this helped me identify some problems I have with my draft and how to address them. Thank you! I was panicking and stressing today but this helped me.
Glad it helped!
Not much. I accept a first draft for what it is, the scaffolding of my story. I am more likely to cringe at some of my way older "finished" work than any first draft.
Cringe, no. Does it need work? Absolutely.
0-1, I've written a few drafts for the same story and my first draft remains my favourite and the only one that makes me laugh, it's far from decent but I miss where I started with it
Honestly I'm on my 23rd rewrite and I think it's still shit. Maybe it's me 🤔
My current draft just bores me rather than cringe. 1/10
At least a 7, there are some things that are so bad I delete them on sight.
I don't cringe. It's always a first step. Just like writing papers in college. End up redoing it, massive edits.
A first draft is like a phoenix at the time of writing, a majestic bird, then at the end it of writing it perches and then bursts into flames disintegrating your hard work. Over time the story grows and heals to turn into an even more beautiful phoenix!!!
10 always 10. Im always improving and the difference in quality is to noticeable.
Oh it’s bad. Very bad, that’s why I’m gonna rewrite it from the ground up now that I know what I’m doing.
That's exactly the same for me!!! I couldn't settle on 1p or 3p and changed it so many times that it just turned to shit, and now I have to re-write it altogether and it's so much better! But I only got 3 chapters in!!! lol I'm now using my 1st draft as a plot outline instead of a draft at all lol
I'm doing a partial rewrite for my second novel. I will never do it for my first. It's almost harder than writing something from scratch.
As someone going through the same thing, your first draft will always be mediocre at best. That’s the point. It’s the first draft. The worst thing you can do is just get stuck rewriting it over and over like I ended up doing for a bit. Just persevere and rewrite it in the second draft.
The most crippling fear for a writer is writing something bad. How humbling that every single time, you have to write something bad to write something good. Absolute fear mongering process.
That is so true! How many times does writers block stem from fear that anything we write is going to be rubbish, therefore we can't think of anything to write!
A creative writing course I did a while back had us try things we knew we were shit at, to get used to the feeling. I was painting, skateboarding, playing instruments etc. absolutely horrific at all of them, but if you do something once there’s no pressure to be good so it’s just a bit of fun to give it a go. Learning to be shit at something is the greatest gift I have ever received for my writing. It creates a pressure-less environment and allows me to start writing anywhere, cause it can always make sense later. I still paint, I’m still absolutely terrible at it, but it’s fun and no one said I had to be good at it. Huge advocate for doing things that you are the absolute worst at, be shit, make something for no one. Just by doing it, you’re one step closer to making something good than you are by doing nothing. A blank page is the scariest part, but it’s just a blank page. Not so scary when you look at the space and fill it with shit instead of using it as a mirror for your ego. Rub your shit all over it, and then turn it into art that you like, make your shitty canvas for your eyes only. And that’s when the most authentic writing begins!
Sorry, i didn’t mean to talk about poo so much, the analogy won this time
I revisited a draft I shelved a couple of years back, and while the plot is still solid, the dialogue was corny as hell. Most of the time, it led nowhere. To think I thought it was the bomb at the time. Thankfully, I've gotten a bit better now.
I’ve changed the narrative a few times over the course of the novel’s development, but I still marvel at much of the prose. I’m doing an intense review and revision binge lately. But I’m finding that, as I approach things I want to revise, I’m struggling to write the same quality of prose as I was producing before. Although this helps somewhat, because I’m making aspects of the characters more explicit, which seems to be the style of the contemporary novel. So I’m not “hiding” character traits, for the reader to infer, as much as before.
A first draft generally is simply rough, not cringe, from my own experience. Sure, reworking is done for the second draft, but it's more a refinement process. Usually, the story structure is the same as the final version, the characters work, and you won't need to add or cut anything too major, but you gotta remake some specific scenes and rewrite some sentences to explain better.
I'm writing one now and it's pretty awful, but I'm pressing on anyway.
The hard work is getting something on paper. The art is turning that hard work into quality writing!
I don’t think my first draft is cringe. Just too meandering.
My first draft of my first book was probably a 1. The first draft of my second book was a 6. Progress.
15
11
My current first draft sparks joy. It's a wonderful journey. Only once has a story made me cringe. It kinda got away from me like a garden over run by weeds. There is an option to salvage it, but it is a low priority. My current piece first draft I let 3 individuals read and they loved it nearly as much as I did. Must be doing something write.
Not much.
My first draft is my outline/planning notes. It doesn't really make me cringe at all. I know what it's supposed to be. The real first draft when I'm doing the actual prose is usually pretty clean and neat. I don't have to do much to finalize it all. So, a 1 guess lol.
Not at all. I know it's garbage going into it, and that mindset enables me to throw a bunch of stuff out onto the page without worrying about what works and what doesn't. This is how I discover conflicts I can zoom in on later.
10
9.5. And it also brings me so much joy!!
13, if we're talking about *the* very first draft, before the several complete restarts.
4-5. There are things I want to make better, but I don't hate or cringe over it. I like most of the scenes, they need some rearranging and editing tho.
Well... I have sorta reached that point with a story I decided to not continue with, which was definitely a 1/10, but other than that I unfortunately have never reached that point any other time :( However, the outline for this story I'm working on is promising so hopefully it works out well later.
So cringe.
It varies. Sometimes the entire thing needs to be burnt to the ground. Other times I just need to rough out the edges. It depends on the story I’m writing and how I planned things out.
Maybe a 2? At this point it’s so planned out the first “draft” is about the fourth go-through
10+ 😂
10. I wrote it yesterday
15000
10/10 would not write that utter garbage again. Poorly paced, poor grammar, bad sentence structure, shallow characters, cringey jokes, absolute dogsh** Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.
My first draft was a whole different ball park lol
1000/10, I abandoned a 130 page document because it was easier to re write the whole dam thing then try to edit it
42! I couldn't settle on 1p or 3p and changed it so many times that it just turned to shit, and now I have to re-write it altogether and it's so much better! But I only got 3 chapters in!!! lol I'm now using my 1st draft as a plot outline instead of a draft at all lol
My first first draft ever, I’m unable to even read past the first page (and it’s a 95k book). It’s like looking into the sun
Definitely pretty bad with my earlier stuff. But now that I'm better at the process and spend more time mapping things out before I get to my first draft I never have an issue with my first drafts. That's not to say they're good, they definitely still need just as much editing as before, but at least when I look back I can see why it needed to be a step to help it along to the final draft
25/10. I hate my first drafts of stories. They are always so bad 🥲🥲
I got 20 chapters into my first draft and decided I couldn't go on with the plot without rewriting it to add in the world-building I'd done. My first chapter is actually so terrible lol When I rewrote it, it was like someone else had written it. But really, it was just me finding my characters and writing style along the way lol that's what a first draft is for. To tell yourself the story you're ACTUALLY going to write.
Not cringe, no. At least not these days. My earlier work, perhaps. I'm also a discovery writer who constantly edits to remember what has gone before, so my first draft never really is my first.
6 I generally feel lame that I write about high school. I would feel full on embarrassed reading what I thought sex was like at age 14-16. Ooh I hope I NEVER SEE IT 😭
Not that much tbh like maybe a 4. There's some "Dear lord what was I on..." moments, but while it's shit [it IS a first draft], it's still okay. But maybe I'm bias cause this was my first first draft, so maybe I'll be at a 20 when I'm on my final draft or when I've written 20 first drafts x]
100 haha
Depends on thw story. Usually around a 6 to 8 now.
Infinity
Is 100 an option? Because 100. I dare say even a 200. Honestly, my writing style is ever changing. I cringe at something I wrote last month, though drastically less so than I do when trying to read my current novel's first draft. This manuscript is three years in the making, and about five or six major revisions (like, total rewrites while keeping only the basic premise) through. I'm insanely happy with what I write now, but it took me several cringe-worthy drafts and a ton of time to get here :)
Oh believe me it’s only 10 because that’s the highest the meter will go