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Hot Sauce Batman posted:I've recently started to really write seriously, and while I have a bunch of ideas that I've been working on for a while, my biggest hurdle is first paragraph or two. Should I just not worry about the opening until after the first draft? Or start the story in the middle and go back to the beginning when it hits me? First pages are notoriously difficult to get right. Don't worry about it. Definitely don't worry about it until you have a first draft. In my experience second drafts are so dissimilar from the first that you'll need a whole new beginning anyway, so start whereever you like. You can always come back to the beginning. Nothing is written in blood. It can all be changed.
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Jul 16, 2012 10:43
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Since you brought up "second draft", I feel this is as good a time as any to ask the question that's been weighing on my mind recently. I find it easier not to worry too much about grammar and legibility in the second draft because my first drafts are always such a total mess. The second draft should really be about fixing the biggest issues with your novel. If you want to cut out a character or a plot thread this is the time to do it. If you want to insert a new plot twist or take one out then now's your opportunity. This isn't the time for delicate operations like making sure the rhythm of a paragraph is pleasing or whether a line of dialogue rings true - this is heavy duty editing. Take a sledgehammer to it and smash the poo poo out of it. Do the big structural edits on that first pass, then deal with the smaller things on the next pass - checking character consistency or flow between scenes. Once you're fairly happy with the big things then you can do a dialogue edit or a grammar edit, or a punctuation pass. Obviously you're going to spot dialogue nasties, ropey grammar and inconsistencies on your first massive draftmangling edit, but don't worry about them. Make a note of them, but if it's going to take you more than five minutes to fix them then carry on with what you were doing. You can fix them in the next editing pass. Second drafts can be overwhelming. They're the moment you realise exactly how much work you have to do - and it's a lot. I find breaking it down into layered edits makes it seem (slightly) less terrifying.
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Jul 17, 2012 13:28
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Thanks, this is super helpful and cuts right into the anxiety I was having about shortchanging myself during the editing process. I've always been a stickler for grammar and making sure paragraphs flow into one another, so it'll be a bit of a challenge to force myself not to do that right from the get go. Still, I'm willing to give it a shot. The anxiety will probably never leave you.  That's just the nature of second drafts. They are horrible, perhaps because you're taking everything you've already done, every word you wrung out of your skull on those slow days when it feels like pulling teeth, and now you're taking a fireaxe to them. You're not just murdering your darlings - you're dismembering them and going full-on Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the bits.I always find it helps if you have time to let your first draft sit for a while - a couple of weeks, months if you have them. Go and work on something fresh. Then come back to your first draft and you'll be amazed to find the difference that a little distance can make. It's not such a wrench to eviscerate the bugger. Instead you feel more as though you're performing necessary surgery.
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Jul 18, 2012 10:52
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Yeah, I let it sit in my desk drawer for almost two months before I took it back out and read through it the first time. Then I started getting really edit-heavy with the grammar and stuff which was when I started to feel like I was really moving off-base. You're very welcome. I only recently crawled out of the rubble of a second draft myself. Third drafts are much nicer, so you've got that to look forward to.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:41
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Wolfsforza posted:I have a "What genre am I?" question. Yeah, Westerns are pretty far down the foodchain. They're sort of the grandpa equivalent of those pink, clinch-cover romances that grandma used to love. Personally I would definitely avoid pitching to agents as a Western - if it's set in the past it's historical fiction. I don't know about the YA thing but if you can get in on that gravy train, give it a shot.
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Apr 12, 2013 17:58
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