How does your first draft looks like?

Darkcrow.

Tarnished
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Feb 1, 2019
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The title says everything.
I wanted to know if I am the only one with these shitty first drafts. (Grammatical errors, Spelling errors, missing lines and broken plot.).
(Add how he is called back to the capital)
My father used to say "Son, you better eat before burning your enemy's, Or your stomach will embarrass you in front of them. And I must tell you, They don't taste as good as they smells,"
And at this moment my burning enemies really smelled good enough for me wanting to taste them. (Change sentence)
"Sire it is done," I turned towards my knight him. the old withered man was standing tall without any sign of tiredness, His white knight clothes was now turned red (Change), His thin hands placed firmly on his sword handle....and his hard eyes, looking at me for my next command. Which for some reason always intimidated me, Maybe because he was my Guardian, Or because those hard grey eyes had the same hidden furiousity as my father. (add more flow)
I gave him a nod, Before looking at my silent troops. Most of them were 2 or three winters older....(Add something it looks like a cut sentence. "Gjklj my most trusted subordinate....and probably the only person i will trust my life with... ")
Strange isnt it, No one celebrated, No one cheered in victory, No one even had a slight smile on their face...All of them just looked at the mountain of broken humans, amputated limbs, headless bodies in silence....(Discribe the mountain more and how mc ordered to create it.)
"Torch," I held out my hand, And the torch was provided instantly by a soldier....(Add probably fearing that mc will kill him if he didn't hand the torch fast enough) And I walked forward near the mountain(Find another word)......Some of the enemy soldiers who could still move their eyes...followed my moment....hopelessly....
I searched for the most defient pair of eyes....among my foes....and ..(Add a little conversatioon about mc talking/moking the soilder.)
.
I didn't hear any screams or pleas, All of them looked just so broken and defeated. It was as if they have given up on living, And that was good...
'Complete Despair is the only thing that guaranty..... your enemy's submission.....' My fathers voice echoed through my hear.....
(Add more content.)
.
The mountain slowly began to burn...And the screams began...as the fire reached those souls....
.
....., And Terror alone can prevent your allies from becoming your enemies..' My father's voice completed the sentence(Try to make the voice a little closer to each other.)....as the more screams began....(Maybe they were from the enemies or my troops I didn't care) a smile slowly streached over my face......
My troops trembled in fear, My enemies cried in despair, My Knight stood indifferently and I laughed in my sinister delight, Savoring the despair of my dying enemies.
(Rewrite everything)
Share your drafts if you can, I want to study them, Maybe get a few tips from them.
A few tips on draft writing will also be appreciated.
 

Paul_Tromba

Sleep deprived mess of a published author
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It's usually pretty bad. If you want to know, just read any of my stories. They are all in their first or second draft. The second draft isn't much better.
 

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
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Too lazy exhausted from preventing the kid from killing itself to take pictures of my notebooks. I think I dropped one on Twitter a few years ago.
 

Story_Marc

Share your fun!
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Jul 23, 2022
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I use this approach I call "layering." I once made a video on it, but I hate the video, so I'm not linking it. Regardless, first I outline the chapter. Then I write all of the dialogue while leaving notes for myself. So it looks kind of like this...

[Open with Cassidy eating her breakfast, a vegetable omelet, while listening to a romance novel. The chapter opens with her romance novel being cut off and Cassidy annoyed.]

Call me at your earliest convenience, the message read.

[Cassidy calls him immediately, curious.]

“I am relatively free at the moment,” she said. “I presume you’ve discovered something monumental?”

“It seems the threads I unraveled a few days ago have exposed the identity of Sam’s killer. According to Dr. Holloway, the responsible party is a prison guard named Hugo Stein. In light of Mr. Stein’s unexplained disappearance, I am inclined to believe Dr. Holloway. Law enforcement is pursuing him as we speak.”

[Cassidy concerned. Imagines something happening to her grandfather.] “I trust you have no intentions of prolonging your stay there?”

Then when I make a later pass, I do far more description stuff, so it gets things like....

The sunlit skyscape softened into a rosy blush as Cassidy worked. She followed Crow’s instructions to the letter, retrieved the information from the data drive, and studied its contents. By the time it came to rendezvous with the rest of the crew, the night sky had spread out its full celestial beauty. The ethereal glow of the cosmos painted a stark contrast against the twinkling city Cassidy and company cruised through in the plush comfort of her black luxury sedan.

“Do we really need to go fishing?” asked Rebecca, a peach-toned girl with a button nose, heart-shaped face, cornflower-blue eyes, and long wavy honey-blonde hair she styled in a braided ponytail. A vibrant, oversized graphic T-shirt featuring a caped magical girl concealed her large breasts and reached down to her upper shapely thighs. “I mean, it’s a nice disguise and all, but couldn’t we have chosen something more exciting?”

“Give me a quiet, uneventful meeting any day,” Wynn said, once more at the steering wheel. He dressed in the black suit he typically wore while on the clock.

“I wouldn’t label this meeting as ‘uneventful’,” Cassidy said, her outfit a deep teal silk blouse she left unbuttoned at the top, black capris, and loafers. It harmonized well with her creamy complexion, piercing jade eyes, and long, silky red hair which she wore in a layered cut with a straight fringe and two side locks that brushed her cheeks. “We did stumble upon some valuable intelligence.”

“I can already feel my heart skipping a beat with anticipation,” Wynn deadpanned. “Truly, it is a gift to be kept in suspense.”

Just as Cassidy’s snicker began to bubble up, Rebecca silenced it by laying her head against Cassidy’s shoulder. A whisper of cherry blossoms and jasmine invaded the air around Cassidy and stirred her senses.

“Won’t you tell me, at least?” Rebecca asked with a playful pout. “And here I thought we were past keeping secrets…”

Cassidy’s insides twinged. She’s just teasing, her mind countered. Still, she couldn’t simply let it slide – at least, she couldn’t without making clear it struck a chord. “As much as I enjoy our little banter, could we leave that particular story in the past?”

You aren't the only one with shitty first drafts though. Most are. I used to have them, though my experience & knowledge has gotten me to a point where mine aren't anymore beyond tiny issues.
 

HelloHound

Hound of hell, lover of girls
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my first draft of my story was a lot brighter and faster (Sybil was more naive and stayed with her mom) with it being an isekai and I grew to despise it with all my heart so I ripped off the flesh, rearranged the bones, and carved the plot until I made what I currently have today; obviously not perfect and definitely less marketable than the last story but I'm more content this way
 

Aader

I am too old for this shit.
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wefrlkqtglmk;lr'edwf
Bets you've written yet. Lol jk
The title says everything.
I wanted to know if I am the only one with these shitty first drafts. (Grammatical errors, Spelling errors, missing lines and broken plot.).
(Add how he is called back to the capital)
My father used to say "Son, you better eat before burning your enemy's, Or your stomach will embarrass you in front of them. And I must tell you, They don't taste as good as they smells,"
And at this moment my burning enemies really smelled good enough for me wanting to taste them. (Change sentence)
"Sire it is done," I turned towards my knight him. the old withered man was standing tall without any sign of tiredness, His white knight clothes was now turned red (Change), His thin hands placed firmly on his sword handle....and his hard eyes, looking at me for my next command. Which for some reason always intimidated me, Maybe because he was my Guardian, Or because those hard grey eyes had the same hidden furiousity as my father. (add more flow)
I gave him a nod, Before looking at my silent troops. Most of them were 2 or three winters older....(Add something it looks like a cut sentence. "Gjklj my most trusted subordinate....and probably the only person i will trust my life with... ")
Strange isnt it, No one celebrated, No one cheered in victory, No one even had a slight smile on their face...All of them just looked at the mountain of broken humans, amputated limbs, headless bodies in silence....(Discribe the mountain more and how mc ordered to create it.)
"Torch," I held out my hand, And the torch was provided instantly by a soldier....(Add probably fearing that mc will kill him if he didn't hand the torch fast enough) And I walked forward near the mountain(Find another word)......Some of the enemy soldiers who could still move their eyes...followed my moment....hopelessly....
I searched for the most defient pair of eyes....among my foes....and ..(Add a little conversatioon about mc talking/moking the soilder.)
.
I didn't hear any screams or pleas, All of them looked just so broken and defeated. It was as if they have given up on living, And that was good...
'Complete Despair is the only thing that guaranty..... your enemy's submission.....' My fathers voice echoed through my hear.....
(Add more content.)
.
The mountain slowly began to burn...And the screams began...as the fire reached those souls....
.
....., And Terror alone can prevent your allies from becoming your enemies..' My father's voice completed the sentence(Try to make the voice a little closer to each other.)....as the more screams began....(Maybe they were from the enemies or my troops I didn't care) a smile slowly streached over my face......
My troops trembled in fear, My enemies cried in despair, My Knight stood indifferently and I laughed in my sinister delight, Savoring the despair of my dying enemies.
(Rewrite everything)
Share your drafts if you can, I want to study them, Maybe get a few tips from them.
A few tips on draft writing will also be appreciated.
Hot forking garbage. Random passages that sometimes are a singular scene and sometimes half a chapter
 

Erios909

Well-known member
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Oct 15, 2020
Messages
112
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My first drafts are usually quite readable. As someone pointed out to me, I learned to 'write' while doing roleplay. That included forum post-by-post roleplays, discord roleplays, etc. Usually one-on-one, multiple posts back and forth per day. Everyday for many years. With many different people. For millions of words, and hundreds of different stories.

One thing that teaches you is how to produce something your partner will want to read. On the first try.

So yeah, first draft is usually what I post. Or second draft. Some people have different ideas about first drafts than me and consider a quick run through Pro Writing Aid and proofread a 2nd draft. I don't. It isn't a second draft until its been through a full line edit.

Speaking of which, that'll be the downside I found of having a roleplay-to-writing background.

Editing.

Namely, you'll probably never have done any. Ever. When I had to edit the first book of ShipCore, it was like hitting a fricking wall. Took me two months before I could even get started on it because I just literally had no idea what to do or how to start and it felt like a giant tower looming over me.

Finally managed to get started and things went better from there. Probably helped that I finally had a publisher and an actual deadline for it.
 

matalayudasleazy

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@Darkcrow. Human does mistakes and suffered because of it, it's not even a question if you asked yourself whether you're the only one and cringed when looking back at our previous works... Damned be my early WebNovel days where I can casually spew out 9K+ words a chapter because of boredom...

@Story_Marc Those freaking [square brackets] sure triggered PTSD quickly enough, alongside jumbled words that just so happened to fit more of an analysis text.

@Erios909 Got to suck when experiencing one of those long ass procrastination. What's the obstacles an editor (from your experience) has to go through at first glance?
 

Erios909

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@Erios909 Got to suck when experiencing one of those long ass procrastination. What's the obstacles an editor (from your experience) has to go through at first glance?

For me, it just felt like a wall. I stared at the text for literally hours some days reading the first chapter and just... drawing a useless blank. I got full of frustration because of that and every time I'd go to try and get started again my mind would wander and I'd end up wasting a lot of time watching youtube or something. It just felt like... 'I'd already done this and wrote this, what can I do?'

There was absolutely no progress...until there was. And then it was like a dam breaking and I felt like I cracked the code and went ham on it. What really helped was having it voice read to me while reading it. I could hear awkward parts and corrected them. I also looked at fixing passive voice when needed. (This was a line edit, not a dev edit or section rewriting.)
 

DonHon

Cat enthusiast
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Well i write a 200 word essay and if its bad i throw it and start back
 

SirDogeTheFirst

Lord Of The Potatoes
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Feb 11, 2021
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My first draft is usually a war crime against literature. No grammar, no punctuation, no spelling just series of random bullshit. My second draft is decryption of my first draft, and my third draft is grammar and spelling check.
 
D

Deleted member 54065

Guest
Lotsa grammar issues, inconsistensies and edgy characters.
 

Corty

Sneaking in, stealing your socks.
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Erios909

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You guys do first drafts? I just make bullet points and write things as they go. After that I edit the chapter once to make sure nothing's wrong.
Anyone who writes 'makes a draft' because a draft is just a version of the writing. So when you create something, the first version is your first draft. Whether that goes through further refinement (second draft, third draft, etc) or becomes the final is up to the author.
 

Tempokai

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Somehow good enough to me to post it. Well, if you include a hour of editing afterwards, and when I was in state of discovery writing.
 
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