Is this normal?

Completely normal. Keep at it.

I think it really depends on how you write. To get myself to put content down on paper, I just let myself write whatever: sort of a blank check to write crap. I go back to edit it later. One time I had a chapter that was twenty pages long; I revised it down to two pages.

I tend to save old copies of things. What didn't work for that chapter might work great in another one, or it might just be a fun reminder of where you were.

I know of one author, published and fairly popular, who first writes his story, then takes the draft, puts it on a shelf, and starts rewriting the story from the bottom without ever consulting the original draft. I have no idea why he's doing that, but if it works for him...

I don't know if your situation is normal, but I doubt it's abnormal. Editing is, again according to some authors, the part when things really start happening, and the first draft is more like a really long and elaborate outline.

growingupblessings said:

I feel like it might be a sign this is not the right hobby to pursue.

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Why?

For the vast majority of writers, writing is rewriting. First drafts (whether of a sentence or the whole manuscript) are just the raw material. You have to shape it into something.

Totes normal if you don't edit as you go. I do edit as I go, but if I think about it, the sentence I end up with is almost nothing like the sentence I first write. When I do an official Revision, though, afterward, there's not that much to clean up. So it might not look like I completely overhauled the prose, but somewhere in there, I totally did.

Some people can write clean prose that they don't tweak very much, and for some people that varies from book to book. But lots of perfectly successful writers basically tear first drafts down to the studs and rebuild in revision. For a lot of writers, revision isn't just polishing. It can be fundamental restructuring.

So no worries! As long as it's something you can revise and do revise, you're doing it right.

It's called a rough draft for a reason.

I've gotten in the habit of considering my first draft to be a kind of very detailed outline. Once it's down, I have a very elaborate roadmap of where I need to go and what I need each character to do. Sometimes I will have some very beautiful stuff in there, stuff that I can lift straight out and put into a clean draft, but most of my gems still need to be buffed quite a bit. But mostly it's just an extensive outline.

If I did not think this way, I would kill myself.

I have done some critiquing for other people as well, and I usually highlight the text that needs work. Sometimes a large part of each page is highlighted in glaring yellow, and then I feel like an asshole, barging in saying, "This is really great! All you need to do is change, oh, everything." But honestly, this is how the creative process works for a lot of people.

Now occasionally, I meet someone who claims to not have to rewrite very much. They say they are able to write it cleanly the first time around. And it's very important to accept that everybody is different, and that everybody's creative process is unique, so I do my level best not to punch these people in the face.

I usually write cleanly on my rough draft, but that does not mean I don't need to do extensive editing. My rough draft is where I flesh out the story in its entirety and the edits is making it pretty, as in tightening things up, making sure I say it with the best choice of words it needs. But the story is all there already, how I want it laid out. So no, I don't rewrite.

But everyone does it differently. If it works for you, it works for you.

auzerais said:

It's called a rough draft for a reason.

I've gotten in the habit of considering my first draft to be a kind of very detailed outline. Once it's down, I have a very elaborate roadmap of where I need to go and what I need each character to do. Sometimes I will have some very beautiful stuff in there, stuff that I can lift straight out and put into a clean draft, but most of my gems still need to be buffed quite a bit. But mostly it's just an extensive outline.

If I did not think this way, I would kill myself.

I have done some critiquing for other people as well, and I usually highlight the text that needs work. Sometimes a large part of each page is highlighted in glaring yellow, and then I feel like an asshole, barging in saying, "This is really great! All you need to do is change, oh, everything." But honestly, this is how the creative process works for a lot of people.

Now occasionally, I meet someone who claims to not have to rewrite very much. They say they are able to write it cleanly the first time around. And it's very important to accept that everybody is different, and that everybody's creative process is unique, so I do my level best not to punch these people in the face.

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LOL. Don't punch me in the face, but sometimes I seem to get it pretty close to right the first time, but that's only some of the time. Also, I write short stories. That could make a difference. It for sure makes a difference in the fluctuating degree of how much editing is needed story to story. I'm always working on something new. Some stories are easier to tell than others. I also know what the OP is talking about. Been there, too. I'm not sure what's normal, but what matters more is the finished product and not how you got to it.

What I have is an 87 page outline/rough draft (some fully fleshed chapters included) getting turned into what I hope will be a 90k-100k word book. After writing the prologue and first chapter I realized it was too slow and felt like info-dumping. I saved it in a separate document and started all over, leaving out the prologue entirely. Did I hate throwing it away? Oh yeah. I even tried to justify to myself why I should keep it, but in the end I realized it didn't work. Editing can be a difficult, even ruthless, process, but I'd be more surprised if I wrote a perfect document the first try.

Also, I hate red ink for corrections. Makes me feel like my book is bleeding. It may be a little silly, but I feel better editing with a purple pen. It doesn't feel like I'm looking at my pages hemorrhaging.

I do one read through/revision/editing on the computer and then print the whole thing out and take a pen to it. We're talking 100k+ words and every single pages comes away marked. Every page. Every book. Every time.

So, it's normal for me. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Editing is a part of the craft.

I think there's a school of thought that says that your first draft should be close to perfect, aside from a few typos. These are the people who quote Heinlein's rules of writing, one of which is to never rewrite, except to editorial order. From this, I'm guessing there are indeed writers who produce very polished, internally consistent first drafts. Maybe they've been at it for a long time, or maybe it's just a gift they have.

But I think there are far more writers, including some pros who have been writing a long time, who say that one's first draft will be a flaming pile of dog poo and that rewriting, revising, and polishing are essential if you want to get to the place in your writing where you have an editor willing to look at it at all.

Yeah, I'm hoping that as I grow in my craft, my first drafts will become more polished.

I've had to cut my first novels by a third so far. And then get into serious editing.

Seriously, I'd quit making corrections in red. It sounds like it's bumming you out to no purpose, and it'll make it hard for betas to read anyway.

What does it matter how heavily you edit? The main thing is ending up with a story that you're proud of, right?

Every author has their own normal. So what might be normal for us may not be normal for you. I actually like to see my revisions because I usually don't feel like I do enough actual revising with my story.


Haven't you heard the expression "write drunk edit sober" my first draft goal is to get it all out, second draft goal is to tell a story.

MerryR said:

Also, I hate red ink for corrections. Makes me feel like my book is bleeding. It may be a little silly, but I feel better editing with a purple pen. It doesn't feel like I'm looking at my pages hemorrhaging.

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I LOVE my purple pens for my own revisions. It's so much - friendlier. Even my comments to myself are kinder. I have a friend who edits in green ink. But I'm a beta for another who actually buys me red pens to use on her manuscripts.

OP, you're fine. I could show you some of my drafts - more purple ink than black. And that's 15 drafts in. Some things are perfect, and some things just - aren't. The saying "all writing is rewriting" is true for quite a few people.

Roxxsmom said:

I think there's a school of thought that says that your first draft should be close to perfect, aside from a few typos. These are the people who quote Heinlein's rules of writing, one of which is to never rewrite, except to editorial order. From this, I'm guessing there are indeed writers who produce very polished, internally consistent first drafts. Maybe they've been at it for a long time, or maybe it's just a gift they have.

But I think there are far more writers, including some pros who have been writing a long time, who say that one's first draft will be a flaming pile of dog poo and that rewriting, revising, and polishing are essential if you want to get to the place in your writing where you have an editor willing to look at it at all.

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I, at least, attempt the former. It rarely works out so neatly for things longer than a short story, because my vision changes drastically as I get through it.
There's an important distinction to be made between saying "this might be awful, and I'll fix it if it is", and saying "I know this is awful, but I'll write it anyway and fix it later".

CathleenT said:

The main thing is ending up with a story that you're proud of...

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I am hanging on to that!

Yes, I am revising and wow, my original MS almost totally morphed - same story but when I see what I will be doing (rewriting), it looks like I'll be writing a whole new (but massively better!) novel. Sigh. . got my writing music cued!

When I am tempted to just say f**k it, I remember that this not some school assignment; this is my book and I want it to be as good as it can be, for who I am right now. I am struggling to get the book I wanted from the one I actually wrote! So I 'm giving it all I got!!!

When I was doing my thesis and dissertation, my advisor would sent back drafts bleeding red, so I tend not to edit in red ink!!!

But hang in there for the book you want!
Who cares how much editing ink? Eyes on the prize!!!

You are a writer
This means nothing will ever be normal again

For a first novel. yes. Normal. I would indeed be surprised if this did not happen in a writer who wishes to improve (writers who do not, do not edit)

Later novels, you should have learned some things from the first and so on...so your first drafts get cleaner. But even then the red pen of doom can wield its heavy hand....

NRoach said:

There's an important distinction to be made between saying "this might be awful, and I'll fix it if it is", and saying "I know this is awful, but I'll write it anyway and fix it later".

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Well, some would argue that the second opinion is more realistic. That's my point. There seems to be a long-standing argument here.

Some writers feel that first drafts (the Heinlein method folks) are actually your best work, and they feel that rethinking, polishing, revising, soliciting crits and so on makes one's prose worse.

Others feel that first drafts suck, and only through the process of rewriting, revising, polishing (and soliciting feedback from critting partners or beta readers who aren't as close to your story as you are), can you make it good.

I recently saw a success story on Querytracker where someone submitted a query for their first draft of a novel (a 150k word doorstop too) to something like thirty agents, got twenty full requests and seven offers of representation. So for some, the Heinlein method appears to be true. But I've also seen a large number of accounts where a writer says they have to do lots of revising and polishing.

So it's probably a matter of knowing what works for you and being honest with yourself.

growingupblessings said:

I feel like it might be a sign this is not the right hobby to pursue.

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There are worse hobbies. There's nothing you've done that you can't undo, and redo, and change, at will.

Consider, by comparison: pottery, thrown on a wheel: you learn to get the clay prepped properly, you learn how to kick the wheel while working with your hands, you learn how to 'pull' the clay up into a hollow vessel. You fire it to make it not 'clay' but 'ceramic'.
Then, just as you're pulling it out of the kiln, one tiny wrong move, one little jostle, and the thing's shattered on the floor, totally useless.

Edit freely, my friend, and don't forget to back-up any e-versions.

First novel. Yep. Completely normal. Forget about it. Edit, revise, make it good and move on. The next one will be better and that still might need a ton of corrections.

The more of this you do, diligently, the less will be the percentage of red text in your edit. But it will never disappear entirely.

Nor should it. if it does, that's a sign you've got lazy.

caw

I spent 35 years in engineering design. There were very few engineers (I never met one but I suppose there might have been one someplace, or at least one that thought he was one), including me, that got everything write the first time. Revision is part of the creative process. Writers who say they don't revise, revise in their heads before they write. Nobody, repeat nobody, has continuous 90K word streams of perfect thoughts that can't be improved. Doesn't happen.

When I first started writing fiction, Fan Fiction, a reader, retired professional editor, took pity on me and offered to beta read my stories. I accepted.

The first chapter she sent back, an MS-WORD file with track changes turned on, had doubled in size. That was after extensive editing on my part. I was shocked. She was kind enough to put in notes about why she made her comments. If it could be done wrong, I did it. At that point I realized how lucky I was.

She was shocked in turn that I accepted her input and didn't let my ego get in the way of my learning process.

Not long ago I sent her a chapter of my novel. It only had about fifteen comments in it. I was thrilled.

That said, my first drafts still get major revisions. I don't turn on change tracking when I do them because it's too discouraging!

It will get better. But it doesn't have to. The only thing that matters, to me at least, is the finished product.

Fitch

oh, totally normal! My first drafts are always super short, I admire people with drafts running over 100k and such. Though, I tend to edit as I go, so I don't really have a first draft, but I'm sure that half the finished product was added later.