First Draft Writing

I listened to a talk once given by a successful novel writer. There was a key phrase he used, went something like this: "Don’t Get it Right, Get it Written." The gist of the discussion was to just sit down and do it: pound out the story and get it all down on paper. Then, after you’ve done that, go back through it again and again and again . . . And again if necessary.

I have done exactly that, but only with short story where the beginning and ending can be belted out in a single sitting. But never have I done it with a longer piece. In fact with my longer pieces, I tend to write a chapter or two that lead in a preconceived direction. Then I go back and edit, edit, edit until I feel good about that chunk of work. Only then do I go forward, following that process chapter by chapter until I am done. It seemed to work perfectly for the first book I wrote and so I began using the same process to write my second.

And yet, there’s something I just discovered about my writing. The book I’m writing now has a few complicated themes running along simultaneously, some subliminal and some conspicuous. And it plays around with time and space while mingling dissimilar cultures. In order to pull it all off, I’ll need to tie up any dangling ends and solve any problems I create for myself along the way. Because of that, just sitting down and writing willy-nilly seemed problematic. I kept wondering whether I’d end up writing myself into a corner, one I couldn’t back out of. So I took a day and wrote a complete, lengthy synopsis of the plot, the characters’ agendas, the complexity of the setting, etc., etc. “There,” I thought, “now I know all that I need to know. All I have to do is fill the characters with life and crack open the scenes.”

But the minute I started to do it, I felt stymied, as if the story no longer held any interest for me. I realized that, by blowing it all out like that, I’d spoiled the surprises for myself. As ridiculous as it sounds, I realized that in writing, I want to be both writer and reader, waiting in anticipation to see what the characters will do next. I want to be amazed and shocked as I turn the blank page and watch the words come stumbling or leaping onto the paper. I want the protagonist to find his or her own way without the writer holding a lantern at the end of the path. And I want the writer to let loose of the reins and allow the characters to have their heads.

It was somewhat of an epiphany and I realized that there are a number of “stops and starts” living here in my laptop, stories that had suffered a similar fate. I’d gotten excited about something and started in on it, all the while having a clear sight to the ending. But time after time, I’d lost interest, abandoning my poor protagonists to their unfinished fates. The more I thought about it, the more I recalled that author’s words: “Don’t get it Right, get it Written” and I wondered whether the process I’ve employed in the past simply doesn’t work the way I thought it would. Maybe I need to take that detailed synopsis I wrote and do what a friend suggested – “Print it out, Linda. And then rip it into tiny shreds and burn it. This will give your subconscious permission to run willy-nilly over the pages again.”

Well, she didn’t put it exactly that way, but I got her meaning. And I think tonight I'll have a little ritualistic bon fire.