I know how you’re feeling. You’re afraid to look at it. You’re afraid you won’t know how to fix it.
That draft. Yep, it’s a mess.
Plot holes, limp dialogue, caricatures instead of characters, and a shallow theme that plays like a bad soundtrack throughout the story.
This is impossible to fix, you think. You avoid it like it’s your snide mother-in-law, a Jehovah’s Witness at the door, or that colonoscopy you’re supposed to schedule.
Yes, your story could be bad. Maybe it sucks.
But is it beyond redemption?
No story is beyond redemption. “Drafts” (notice the word is plural) are called drafts for a reason. You will have multiple iterations of the same story. Accept it as part of the process. No one writes a perfect book the first time.
Instead of dreading your crude first draft, get excited about watching its evolution. Dig through your words and find the little pockets of goodness inside. Expand on them.
Stay curious. Ask your characters questions. Write down the millions of possibilities for them.
Read your draft over and over again (no matter how much it hurts) until something sparks against the flint of your mind. Sit quietly. Clear the inner badgering and follow your gut instincts.
This is an excellent post! So many times, us as authors, see our stories, novels, and poems as unredeemable or we give up altogether. This post offers us hope and allows us to realize that perfection is impossible, and that in order to reach our goal for our novels, stories, or poems, all we need is to do a little extra work. Thanks so much for sharing this with us and offering us such great encouragement! CSA
Yes, it’s so hard to push past the hard parts. I think writers have to detach from their work and pretend they are working on someone else’s book. I’m so glad you liked the post!
Excellent advice, Christa! Sadly, I once worked with an author who paid for editing and then abandoned their manuscript because “it needs too much work.” No amount of cajoling could convince them to put it away for a while and then come back to it. A writing group like The Writers’ Mastermind is really what they needed to gain perspective and support. It was a wonderful story and didn’t even need much revision, but the writer didn’t have much self-confidence in their abilities.
That is a sad, Candace. Many writers don’t know how close they are to being amazing if they would just take a few more steps to find their true voice and open space for a breakthrough. Thanks for sharing this story.
Very motivating. I am close to finishing and the work yet to be done is frightening.
I’m so glad you found it motivating. What are you finishing? It sounds like we’re in the same spot. I’m finally in the final processes of finishing a novel I’ve been sitting on for almost 9 years, and I still don’t feel ready!