You Have a Bad First Draft of Your Novel — Now What?
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So, you just typed those blissful final words on your manuscript: the end. I want you to take a moment, take a deep breath, and pat yourself on the back.
That feeling of accomplishment might be short-lived because this is often the time when anxiety floods in for writers, especially if this is the first book that you have written. What if what you wrote is total garbage? Did you just totally waste many precious hours of your life on something that is never going to see the light of day? You might start to look back through your pages and wonder what the heck you were thinking when you were writing it, and now you just feel at a total loss for what to do with this bad first draft.
Rest assured that all of these feelings are completely normal, and today I want to discuss the steps you should take once you have a bad first draft.
Recognize What You’ve Accomplished
I know this sounds sappy, but it really is critical for you to understand what you have produced and see the value in it—because there is so much value there, I promise.
First and foremost, remember that completing a first draft is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. So many writers say they want to write a book or attempt to write a book and don't ever finish it. You are one of the select few who has. So, instead of getting caught up in all of the imperfections of this bad first draft, take a moment to acknowledge all of your hard work and dedication.
I want to tell you a personal story here from working with an author on what she self-proclaimed was a bad first draft. As a developmental book editor, I often work with writers through pretty major transformative edits. And when I was working with this particular author, we had worked through multiple drafts of her book, such that it became something almost entirely different than the original draft we worked on.
While she felt very proud of where the manuscript ended up, she wished that her first draft was much closer to that product and was frustrated that it took her major transformative edits to get it there. But I reassured her that we were only able to get the final version of the story because of the bad first draft, imperfections and all.
So, I hope that reassures you that even if your first draft feels riddled with errors and there's so much to improve, that your story still is in there somewhere, and this is a necessary phase of the process. It's really not unlike the metaphor of Michelangelo having a slab of marble and having to chip away and find the sculpture within it. That's what you're doing with your first draft. It's the raw materials for the final polished story.
Start Solidifying Core Story Elements
Even if you feel like your first draft is bad, this is a great time to solidify some of the core story elements. As you were drafting, and the words were likely just flowing on the page, and you may not have been consciously thinking of elements like genre, length, and point of view (POV)—and that's totally fine. These things can sometimes bog you down throughout the drafting process, so it's okay that you set them aside for the time being.
But now that you have a draft, it's time to start thinking about them more seriously. That's because these major elements of your story are going to inform how you revise and develop it from here. Now that the draft is complete, do you have a sense of what genre it falls under, or is it merging elements of different genres?
Also think about the length. Is the length within the standard range for your genre, or are you really far under or really far over the standard word count range?
Finally, what’s your approach to POV? Remember that the POV is the way in which the reader experiences the story, and it has a drastic shift on the tone of the novel and how the raeder engages with the story. You want to be very intentional with POV, especially as you go through subsequent drafts. Do you have a consistent POV from the beginning to the end of the novel? Do you incorporate multiple characters' POVs? Are there sections where you're unintentionally slipping between close third person and omniscient narration? You're going to want to consider and refine these big-picture elements as you go through the next stages of your revision process.
You might not have solid answers for all of these questions right now, and that's okay, but at least let these thoughts begin to marinate in your mind.
Understand the Levels of Editing
It is imperative that you are very intentional and deliberate with your revision process; otherwise, it is likely going to be overwhelming, and you can quickly burn out. I am all about editing as efficiently as possible, which means starting from the thorny, big-picture, structural issues and then working your way down into sentence-level issues like grammar and typos.
It doesn't make sense for you to get hung up on all of those small, line-level issues and perfect every sentence at this stage because those sentences might change—or even be omitted—between now and the final draft. So you don't want to do double-duty and perfect them now, only to have to perfect them again later.
If you're not totally clear on the differences between developmental editing, copy and line editing, and proofreading, I recommend taking this time to brush up on those different definitions.
I do recommend that you take a break from your manuscript before diving into any level of editing, because that's really going to help you see your draft from a new perspective.
Take Your Time Sharing It
A common mistake many authors make once they have a completed, bad first draft is to immediately send it to a loved one, a family member, or a friend to get their thoughts.
I totally understand where this inclination comes from. On some level, you might be seeking some kind of validation, especially if you're not feeling great about the draft. You want someone else to tell you that it's awesome, right? But try to resist the urge to immediately share your story with someone else, because if you share it when you personally are feeling a little bit uncertain or vulnerable, you're not going to be in the right headspace to receive constructive feedback. And in the worst case, the feedback that you get could end up making you feel worse about your draft.
First, I want you to take some time to think about your story on your own and try to identify aspects of it that you want to develop. What experience do you want this story to deliver to the reader? You want to have a solid sense of what your real intentions are with this book before sharing it with someone else.
Also, be really cautious with who you share your manuscript with. Ideally, it will be someone who's going to give you honest feedback and not just tell you it's amazing, someone who understands what you are trying to accomplish with your book, someone who ideally has knowledge of your genre, and someone who comes from an editorial background or has the ability to provide insightful editorial critique.
Don’t Let Publishing Concerns Derail You
Writing a book and publishing a book are two very different pursuits, and right now, you still need to focus on writing the best possible book.
It's really easy to get overwhelmed and stressed when you start digging into your publishing options, and I promise you're going to have a lot of time to think about that when the time comes. But first, you still have a lot of work to do on the manuscript itself. So don't let publishing concerns distract you from what needs to be done.
As you are going back to revise your manuscript, it does help to have some sense of whether you're interested in traditional publishing or self-publishing, because that can inform some editorial decisions that you make. But try not to put the cart too far behind the horse and distract yourself from what actually matters right now, which is creating the strongest possible manuscript.
No matter which publishing path you ultimately go down, the first step is to have a polished draft, one that you feel confident in and one that reflects your vision for the story. So focus on that first.
If you're feeling down about your bad first draft, I hope this offered you some reassurance and some guidance on what to do next from here. Remember, think of this bad draft as the raw material from which you're going to create the beautiful finished product.
Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!