Moving past a first draft

[robertlee]

Does anyone else have trouble moving past a first draft? You edit it, check all the spelling errors and grammar issues but you just can't move past the story you've told. I'm in a slump where I know I want more from what I've been writing but my idea and what came of the first draft is blocking me from moving forward. Plot was good and got where I planned but more could come from it. Any advice to get my mind moving again?

[mitchelll]

Have you tried writing something else completely different?   Maybe a short story in a completely different style or genre.  I've had that help in the past.  Or, in a similar vein, I did the "what if" game on a story developing a completely different plot from having my MC make a different choice on a major decision....that lead me to being even more certain my first plot idea was better, but it also gave me some new insight and fresh ideas.

[Brayon]

On 5/24/2017 at 10:15 PM, robertlee said:

Does anyone else have trouble moving past a first draft? You edit it, check all the spelling errors and grammar issues but you just can't move past the story you've told. I'm in a slump where I know I want more from what I've been writing but my idea and what came of the first draft is blocking me from moving forward. Plot was good and got where I planned but more could come from it. Any advice to get my mind moving again?

 

I second guess myself all the time. Then I give it to my Betas and ask them to review it and tell me what they think. Based on their responses, is whether I rewrite sections, lines, or the entire installment. The only time, I've really had a conflict, was with my last two major story chapters, and ended up rewriting them a total of 12 times. Finally settled on a new tack on them, instead of the original version.

[Jason Rimbaud]

Not sure if this helps others but how start re-writing a finished work/scene/chapter, I literally start re-writing it.  I put the cursor above the first sentence, and start writing the piece again word for word.  Very quickly, the re-write starts happening where I will change/add/re-word sentences, sometimes cutting out whole paragraphs.  I always save the new version so I won't lose the original.  There are also times where I won't change much for pages, but this is always how i always do it.  Even for my poems, blog entries, shorts or novels I find that doing this gets me right back to the meat of the story.  My Blog entries are re-written five or six times at least.  So as bad as my blogs are, imagine reading them before the re-writes.

 

Jason

[Carlos Hazday]

On 5/24/2017 at 10:15 PM, robertlee said:

Does anyone else have trouble moving past a first draft? You edit it, check all the spelling errors and grammar issues but you just can't move past the story you've told. I'm in a slump where I know I want more from what I've been writing but my idea and what came of the first draft is blocking me from moving forward. Plot was good and got where I planned but more could come from it. Any advice to get my mind moving again?

Ask someone to beta read the rough draft. Their comments may just be the spark you need.

[Former Member]

On 5/24/2017 at 7:15 PM, robertlee said:

Does anyone else have trouble moving past a first draft? You edit it, check all the spelling errors and grammar issues but you just can't move past the story you've told. I'm in a slump where I know I want more from what I've been writing but my idea and what came of the first draft is blocking me from moving forward. Plot was good and got where I planned but more could come from it. Any advice to get my mind moving again?

My advice might be to not type the rough draft. For me, flexibility for improving bigger issues, like wanting the story to be a better version of itself, comes in using the rough draft as a guide. You read it, make notes on what areas you think are weak and why, then only once you have a complete self-crit to review, inspiration should appear. At this point you will know what parts of the MS need to be re-written, slashed, or expanded upon. 

 

Personally, I can't get to this level of review with an electronic document. In my mind, it looks too 'perfect' and I get a block. If I have a typed-out section, I print it off so I can get back in the MS mode for review. 

 

Perhaps try this for yourself, if you do it differently now. 

[Mikiesboy]

I'm not a fast writer and i find just leaving a chapter for a week (often longer) will help when i go back to look at it again. I've learned to look at it from a higher level, i guess. This is not my baby, it is my work and i want it to be as good as i can make it before i send to be read and edited.

 

It will come back with suggestions and then i can go back again to fill in, flesh out, add colour and life. But you have to be objective and if something needs to go, then you need to just cut it out.

[Hudson Bartholomew]

I agree with what most people have said. I need to take time away. The longer the better. Because then I forget the story and when I come back to it, it doesn't feel like mine anymore. So when I re-read, it's easier to spot what works and what doesn't. 

[mastershakeme]

On 5/24/2017 at 10:15 PM, robertlee said:

Does anyone else have trouble moving past a first draft? You edit it, check all the spelling errors and grammar issues but you just can't move past the story you've told. I'm in a slump where I know I want more from what I've been writing but my idea and what came of the first draft is blocking me from moving forward. Plot was good and got where I planned but more could come from it. Any advice to get my mind moving again?

 

Hey  The story I'm posting now, Parasitic Love, had a first draft... It wasn't complete, but omg I didn't like it! I didn't like the perspective, I didn't feel close enough to the characters. It was my first attempt at scifi and I kept trying to write from the 'alien' perspective and it just sounded really goofy and it definately LOOKED like my first attempt

 

I abandoned it and moved on. I finished two other stories before I finally came back to PL. I read over my first attempt, brainstormed some ideas based on what I though didn't work. I majorly tweeked the characters, I made them more relatable to me. I changed the perspective entirely, I haven't yet and probaly won't attempt to take the 'alien' pespective in this version. In the past, I've bounced between my main two characters perspectives, but in this one, I stay ONLY with Connor, the human. So, in a way I limited myself, but it also adds a bit more realism to it, I suppose. You only get bits and pieces of the scifi at a time and they're all related to plot events, so it's more dramatic imo. 

 

Sorry I rambled about my story, I just find it easier to relate to things I've been through personally  I find it easier, and I always like the overall tone much better when I write what I know. 

 

Give it a break. I agree with some of the other posters above, time helps develop a story. Let your plot linger in your brain. Maybe it'll take weeks, maybe it'll take years, but concentrate on what you want out of your story. Really. Don't get overwhelmed by thinking of the enormous edits and revisions to come, just let the story live and breathe in you! 

 

Lol! I sound flipping crazy  Good luck @robertlee

Edited June 21, 2017 by mastershakeme