Writing Crappy First Drafts, and Bradbury Challenge

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Thanks
* Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Writing Crappy First Drafts…
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“Well begun is half done.” Aristotle

“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” Mark Twain

Thanks

to everyone who subscribed to my new YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@HarveyStanbrough and-or to the StanbroughWrites substack at https://stanbroughwrites.substack[dot]com/. I appreciate your support and I will do my best not to disappoint you.

Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting

You can still join in the challenge at any time. There’s no cost of course, and it’s a great way to have some fun, increase your inventory, and jumpstart your writing. It’s also a great way to get more practice pushing down the critical voice.

During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:

• Erin Donoho “True Love” 5200 words Christian fiction
• Balázs Jámbor “The Character Problem” 1800 words Fantasy
• George Kordonis “”Missed Flight” 3721 words Ghost Story
• Alexander Nakul “A Classic Cat” 4051 words Historical, Humor
• Chynna Pace “The Magic Experiment” 3429 words Fantasy
• K.C. Riggs “Swallow” 2773 words General Fiction
• Bill Sinclair “I Once Met a Man Who Mentioned Himmler’s Holiday” 1670 words General Fiction

Writing Crappy First Drafts—What a Crappy Idea
guest post by Dan Baldwin

Note: This is a heavily edited compilation of two of Dan’s bloggettes. Any mistakes are mine. Harvey

Some so-called writing experts advise writers to “write a crappy first draft.”

Translated, it means throw out everything you’ve ever learned about the craft of writing, your entire 12 – 16 years of education in the English language, and your commitment to excellence and replace it all with crap. These experts actually encourage poor craftsmanship; you can clean up the “mess” in your multiple revisions.

As an often-quoted friend of mine used to say, How is that a good idea?

Another version of this theory is, “You’ll toss out 80 percent of your first draft, so don’t worry about it.” This kind of thinking relates to the “fix it in post” concept I addressed in an earlier piece.

I don’t understand why anyone would advise anyone to write a crappy first draft. And it seems like a cop out to me. If you’re going to write something, give it your best from the first word to The End.

What’s the point of giving into laziness and sloppy writing on a first draft? And is it really lazy considering all the extra work you heap upon yourself cleaning up your joyfully written mess?

There’s a famous story about an encounter between Sir Lawrence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman while filming Marathon Man. Hoffman had to appear exhausted from running on a scene. To prepare for the shooting, he ran up and down nearby stairs until he really was exhausted.

Olivier is supposed to have looked at Hoffman and said, “My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?”

Writing crappy first drafts? What a crappy idea. Why not just write your best the first time?

[I believe] a competent writer cannot write a sloppy draft unless he commits himself and directs his attention to said crap.

If you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize you know too much to do that. You have to work at screwing it up. Why would someone bang out a bunch of crap when with the same effort s/he could produce quality work? I don’t get it.

How much “fix it in the rewrite” mentality a writer adopts is a personal matter. I rewrite only to editorial supervision and then only if I agree with the editor.

My process is to write a good first draft. Before writing Chapter Two, I read over Chapter One and clean up any problems such as typos or factual errors, and then I move on. I repeat that simple process chapter by chapter.

When I finish, I send the piece off to my editor. Then I write a good opening line and begin the next novel. There’s no mess to clean up because I don’t leave a mess in the first place.

You may not believe it, but neither do you. Not unless you force yourself to on bad advice.

The next time you start writing, cut the crap.

Dan’s Recommended Reading:

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law

American Indian Myths and Legends, edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz

Mark Your Calendars to meet Dan: Desert Foothills Book Festival October 21, 2023

Talk with you again later.

Of Interest

See “comments on Licensing by others and Dean” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/comments-and-questions-here/#comments.

See “Create Jigsaw Puzzles (for licensing)” at https://www.createjigsawpuzzles.com.

See “POD Tote Bags (for licensing)” at https://thecleverbusiness.com/print-on-demand-totes-bags-backpacks/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 770

Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)

Day 1…… 4283 words. Total words to date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. Total words to date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. Total words to date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. Total words to date……12154

Total fiction words for June……… 12154
Total fiction words for 2023………… 110022
Total nonfiction words for June… 14170
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 123590
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 233612

Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 221
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

I.M. An angel, my angel, left this earth on April 11, 2023 just before 10 a.m. My life and my world will never be the same.

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.