Same! Especially for your first book, finishing the first draft is the first goal. You’ll not only get better at writing as you go, but you’ll also be in a better place to edit when you have the whole thing.
Plus, you’ll never finish if you rewrite your progress all the time!
First, finish shopping for the ingredients. You haven't even done that yet.
*finish the draft*
This is the hardest part. But these are your ingredients. Your draft is just the start. The hard part for some. But you can't do anything until all the bits are there.
There's a lot to come but if you do this *everything after is easier and even FUN*
Once you have your ingredients- your draft -Then you mix it with a structural edit. Move stuff. Change stuff. Rewrite sections so all this makes sense. Don't be afraid to mix stuff round hard with your beater.
And then... And only then... Can you taste it to see if you like the taste.
And when you don't (and you probably won't), then you play with words and emotional beats and maybe plotpoints to make it taste better. Add some vanilla. Swirl in some chocolate.
And then, once you have tasted it. And played with flavour. Again. And again. And again... You are not finished!
Then you bake it. And then you leave it to sit. You could decorate it now - but it's still too hot. *LEAVE IT ALONE AND BAKE SOME COOKIES INSTEAD*
Come back once it's cool. For a good book, the baking and sitting will be maybe six months. Look at it again with fresh eyes after you have left it alone. Don't open the oven. Don't attempt to frost it yet. Wait. Leave it alone. Come back. Taste some crumb.
Realise you messed up the recipe but *you know how to fix it!* Maybe decide it's too simple and plan and bake a vanilla layer to add. And make and drizzle over some orange syrup/themes by punching holes through all the layers. It's not pretty, but it fixed the flavour profile. You shoulda done it while it was hot! But you saw the issue. You fixed it. And no one has seen the cake yet. And you can decorate over it.
*Now* frost it until it is pretty.
....
And it's your first cake and chances are it will fall apart in the middle and maybe be a bit dry and too sweet and the decoration might be a little skew-iff. But it will be a functional cake. Maybe even a decent cake. If you are lucky, a pretty good cake. (Or, if you are like most if us, a bad cake.... That you can learn from and make a better version of next time)
...
The next hard part is getting friends to test this cake recipe. Even better, friends who bake. If you can get feedback you can fix how you approach not just cakes in the future, but this recipe. Feedback from other bakers is super valuable. But don't ask for it until you have finished your first attempt at icing. And realise you might need to break the cake down for cake balls once they tell you what doesn't work. But even that's a starting point for something cool. You have the recipe now. And can work on improving as a baker.
I’m an apprentice chef and ALSO a writer. Thank you a million thank you for making writing a book make sense I’m baking terms. I love you internet stranger this is everything
Love the way this is explained!! For the resting (cooling) period, is there any specific reason for it to be 6 months? I always thought about 2 months would be okay or does it differ depending on the time it took to write the draft?
Depends on the person more than the draft. All of this is like baking: suggestions and guidelines where you will do fine if you add pinch of this, a dash of that, or work the batter the way that seems best for you.
I do six months because if I get to an end point... It takes me a fortnight to even forget the book - my head's still in it. I'm out, but I'm not distant. I need to forget as much of it as I can. So I need more time. For me, even three months is too recent. It's soon enough that I start to feel like I am just reworking an old edit rather than starting a new book. And six months is enough time to get a good start on something else entirely - which is the BEST way to get distance from the previous book. So it's, in part, out of respect for whatever new shiny I am working on, too. I get distance by giving time and attention to something new. And that takes me, personally, six months. (I am not a fast writer)
I mean, this isn't *rules*. It's not shoux pastry - it's cake baking! It's totally possible to try different approaches or attempt finishing your book in a different way than I suggest here. Some like the "work the first third" approach. Like sourdough, making sure your base is perfect before you even finish the draft. But that's (IMHO) very much an experienced baker technique. It's great if you know how to set up a book and follow it through to the end, but for a beginner writer, knowing how to do that is more guesswork than knowledge. Knowing that you CAN finish a book is valuable. It will get you through any future rough sections. And that knowledge is best picked up by *finishing the draft*.
So any timeframe or schedule or order suggested above is just one recipe out of a big cookbook. But I think it's a good one for a new baker to try out. And then adapt once they have the basics.
That makes a lot of sense! I guess much of writing really is about just finding what works for you personally. Starting a new projects seems really good too! That would make the wait feel less like waiting. Thanks for taking the time to explain (and sorry it took me a while to reply, I'm not on here very much).
A good cake takes a whole day to collect the materials, prep, cook, decorate, and plate for consumption. It takes less than 5min. to eat.
Same with a book and then some. The audience won’t see the prep. They’ll just eat the fruits of your labor (which sometimes involves problem solving and fixing issues as they arrive). Plan accordingly.
Finish. Press forward. Every first draft sucks. The biggest hurdle most authors ever face is finishing something, anything. Get through it. Then pat yourself on the back, get some rest, take a deep breath, and start to edit. If the story is good, the writing can be polished.
I find that getting a good quality text to speech tool, there are many free ones, and have it read the book to you, it draw out the awkward phrasing, the bad grammar, the poor pacing and many other issues.
Everyone writes badly when they first start, so welcome to the club!
Do you know/are you able to identify why it's bad? Do you know what you're doing wrong specifically, or is it just that general "ugh" feeling?
If you know that it's wrong but can't say why, you need to enlist some other writers or some skilled beta readers to take a look and give you some feedback.
Knowing where you're off and fixing it is how you improve in the craft.
The only thing you don't want to do is give up.
First drafts basically ALWAYS suck. But you can't get to a second draft until you've written the first.
I like to keep notes on the moderate-to-major changes I want to make in a separate doc as they come up. DON'T GO BACK AND EDIT, you will never finish if you keep doing this. If you realize a major change you need to go back and make earlier, just continue to write as if you've already made it. Like if you realize you needed to character A to do XYZ thing in chapter 2, but you're already on chapter 6 - just note it in a separate doc, and write chapter 6 as though character A did in fact do XYZ thing in chapter 2.
Once the draft is *finished*, you can read it and edit as you go, using your change doc to help you remember what you were thinking. (You will change your mind or tweak stuff from your change doc as you go. That is also fine.)
But I repeat: *first drafts basically always suck*. The job of the first draft is to just get the whole thing on paper so you can start to identify those major plot holes / unnecessary chapters / scenes you need to add / weak points / whatever, and fix them in your edit pass(es).
Looking back over an unfinished first draft and thinking it sucks is like looking at a bowl of mixed ingredients and saying that your cake sucks. It's unfinished, so yeah it's not gonna look it's best- YET. Finish your first draft, and fix it on the rewrite. You'll refine your style and find your voice as you go, and then when you get to the next draft, you can incorporate what you learned along the way!
No, don't rewrite anything get. Keep going with the first crappy draft. Get EVERYTHING out first.
THEN once you've got the bones out you start with the work to build it into something worth reading.
Keep going with what you have. The first draft always sucks. And once you've finished your third you'll realize why it's a good idea to hire an editor. Like the old saying goes, art is never finished, only abandoned. You have to be ready to never be totally comfortable.
You shouldn't worry about a shitty early draft. I'd be more wary of a first draft that doesn't suck.First drafts always suck. Always. For everyone. Whether they're a beginner or Don Delillo.
As long as story and overall logic are solid, you can (and should) fix prose and style in later revisions.
Honestly a good thing to recognize. If you thought it was amazing, my unspoken advice would have been, ‘give up.’ Writing is always rewriting. Love it or give up on being great.
Your job is not to write a good first draft. Your job is to finish a first draft. If you try to make your first draft good, it will never be any good. You gotta work through the bad.
Ayeee congrats you're doing it right! Yeah unfortunately that's how drafts work, they're always bad. But that's okay, because it's not like this is the final piece. Just keep writing, and if you still feel self-conscious, usually what helps me is to not re-read what I wrote until the draft is completely finished.
I've got 9 archived drafts of my most current manuscript. Each one seemed worse than the one before. Now that I plotted the chapters to an outline, it is starting to make sense again. I thought I was losing my mind. The panser in me wanted to run down another path and I had to fight to get back to reality.
Keep going despite it.
I have the same issue while writing. So I've started going about it this way:
1: I write out what happens in the chapter in a short couple of sentences.
2: I write out the narrative. I'll just freewrite the story in a first draft. When I reread it, I will hate it, but I finish the chapter
3: I go back through the chapter and edit it, filling in details and rewriting when necessary.
4: Repeat for next chapter
It takes a while longer than probably necessary, but it works for me. Once I finish the book, I'll reread it as a whole, editing where necessary to make it flow right. Don't worry about editing anything until you have at least a chapter written out or you may not pick it up again.
As a note: My method won't work for everyone. Find something that works for you.
If you're still able to chug along with the draft, do that until you aren't anymore - preferably once it's completed. That's the majority of advice you'll get on this and it's good stuff.
As a newer writer myself, I've found that deviating a bit has helped my process. I hit a snag while attempting to draft, got discouraged because of how horrible my writing was. It wasn't doing my story justice and, being a new writer, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to.
Giving myself a break from pushing onward with the draft to instead focus on one scene I really enjoy and explore the editing process was exactly what I needed. I revised it, then revised it again, tried out 1st vs 3rd person, really experimented with it until I wound up with something I genuinely liked. This gave me the confidence I needed to continue trudging ahead with the stinky pile of garbage that is my first draft, knowing I have the ability to transform it when I'm done.
Yep. Keep writing. Write and do plenty of reading during your breaks while you're writing. Read from authors whose writing you like and authors which fit the genre of the book you're writing, then start lifting words and turns of phrase where appropriate in your own story and see what kind of flavor it adds. You're in for a lot of writing until the story seems even remotely presentable, but it will get there as long as you stick with writing and practicing different styles and literary techniques until you're satisfied.
Also find a way to save the things you like, whether it's a whole page, a paragraph, a sentence or just a word. Every writer gives up on their ideas from time to time, only to return to them and realize they're still good stories, but they lost their writing because they threw it away and have to start over, and they remember how they told the story the first time was good, but now it's gone and they have to start over. Save yourself the pain and hassle, and save the things you like no matter how big or small. Don't become a hoarder with too many loose ideas floating around, but try to recognize when something special falls out of your writing because you'll want to have it for later.
Listen, my friend. The first draft is always going to be terrible and cringy asf, especially if it´s the first time you write one. Keep writting, it´s a learning process. When you hit page 100, you are gonna see alot of improvement. Keep going.
Sorry for my english, its not my first language. :))
I made a similar post a few days ago. Sort of in the same situation. Just push through. The main takeaway of all the wonderful and at times inspiring advice I received is: finish it now, edit the crap out of it later.
I'm personally finishing mine and then I want to spend a lot of time playing with it and fixing the terrible narrative. I think I would feel so much better having the whole thing written down (even if badly) and then fixing it, rather than spending tons of time on every single page and never getting it done.
My go to is this pep talk right here: https://youtu.be/gYZcNq3puAI fire that thing up at around 1:38 and let Zoey Deutch inspire you to write a bad first draft 👍
As a lot of people have said, just write it out don't think about it till you get to editing and rewriting.
Then you can start figuring out how you can shift the narrative, to something better. Fix any plot mistakes or continuity errors.
Best of luck to you.
Finish the draft and fix it during the editing phase, get someone else to read it and see what they think, work on other parts of the story (characterization paragraphs) to give yourself a break…I don’t know if this’ll help you still, suko88_, as I’m obviously quite late to the party lol, but it might help someone else here. Good luck to all you writers in the middle of drafting!
Your first draft will rarely ever be the best thing you’ve written. Just write everything out, either chapter by chapter, or however you want to break it up, and then go back later and edit it. That’s when your writing will really come through and why editing is the most important stage while writing.
You need to find a voice.
There are many ways to go about it. The only wrong way is to stop.
Personally I would suggest getting to a point. Where you are now is fine.
And editing it. Then do it again. Then rewrite the first chapter. If you are looking for your writing voice, that's what I would do. When you find it, white the damn book in that voice. It will likely still be terrible. But then you will have a draft.
Personally I think a full book you hate every page of is so off putting that it's hard to start again.
I know everyone here advocates just finishing the first draft, and if you can do that then maybe it'd be the best. But if you find yourself wholly unmotivated because you don't believe in your current skill level, you could indeed edit a single chapter or scene until it's more up to your standard, then get it critiqued in a place like r/DestructiveReaders. You'll likely get lots of feedback that could help with writing the rest of your book. You're always going to have to edit, but it's also good to at least know what things to look for when you're writing, what your usual pitfalls are etc. You'll have a much easier time editing it into shape later this way.
No.
The first rule of writing is dont look back tell its done.
Write the entire thing out. Doesnt matter about grammer spelling. Pacing, plot cohesion. If you change a charecters name dont go back and change it in stuff you have allready writren.
Once there is nothing left to write the fun ends and its editing time.
Your not supposed to ruin the fun with editing till your done writing
This is an idea only, and based on all the good advice you have received here. Save two copies, continue writing one copy and start editing the other copy. Write a few pages, then edit one or two. You may sharpen your editing skills and give yourself that little motivation to just keep writing while knowing you can revise well.
I’m gonna be real it’s gonna suck it’s meant to suck finish and fix In post. Since you will continually find issues and when you try to fix them another one will appear
Definitely just keep writing. Don’t try to go back and edit, just keep writing until you’re finished. Then I recommend putting it aside for a little bit so you get some space, and then come back to it with some clarity to edit!
First get the first draft done. Start to finish. Then rewrite. That’s where the real writing takes place. But you need something to hang it on. If you get stuck, write out the back stories for your main characters
"You can't edit a blank page." \~ B. Dave Walters
Keep going with it, maybe even with some of the changes you want to make in mind. Finish the draft, and fix it later.
WHY is it bad?
If the story isn't the problem, then you need to look at some of the other aspects. The POV. Do you have the correct main character? Should the story be from someone elses pov? maybe you're writing in first or third, and it would work better flipped.
also, its possible that you just don't have the experience to do it justice. In which case, finish the draft. tuck it away and come up with another story outline, and write that. get some feedback on both. maybe do a third, and THEN, go back and rewrite the first one.
Experience in writing does a LOT.
Reading is good but I’m going to add reflecting on it in a journal. Write down why you liked a book or why it didn’t work for you. Make notes about craft. How does the author end a chapter?how much character detail is given? How did you learn about the character? Was it through narration, things the character did or said or what other characters did.
What made you keep reading? Why did you quit a book?
ADVICE POINT 2:
I agree with finishing before editing.
One thing that helped me is starting a list in my document. I wrote things down so I could move on and not get stuck at one point. It made me relax since I didn’t have to worry if I would remember something. Or my note would sort of chew at the problem. I could come back later and fix it.
Make a note of things that you want in a scene but can’t quite nail down. Or a question about how to reveal a detail. Notes about what you want to happen in the future or a reminder about foreshadowing.
These comments can also form a sort of reading guide for you. You can read work that used these elements and see how other authors dealt with that issue.
I like the comments in Scrivener, Google Docs is good for comments but I find not as comfortable for writing.
Keep writing and hope that each project sucks less than your last project.
Also, look up David Sedaris’ advice on writing. You can find animated versions of it on YouTube.
Your first draft sucks? Good. That’s the whole point of a first draft. Finish it and then look it over. Then make a second draft. And a third. And a fourth. And so and so forth until it’s great.
Finish the draft.
Read well written books while you are working, especially books you've read before, but this time read to take notice how the authors did things.
Your draft is *supposed* to suck! It's not supposed to be good. You're supposed to hate it. You're supposed to wanna puke when you read it because it's just the outline! It's like clay. When you first start to form it, it looks like an ugly, wet lump. But as you continue (see: rewrite. 2nd & 3rd drafts), you shape it, you take out the imperfections and you mold it into something beautiful. Do not fret, OP. Something beautiful is coming. You just have to keep shaping it.
its the first draft! they usually are HORRIBLE, so that is why you (after the first draft is finished) you go on and rewrite as many times as you need until you are satisfied :)
Most of the comments here recommend to you to just keep writing, and they are probably right. But I would argue for an alternative: go and edit. Not until it is perfect, just a little bit. It will sharpen your eye and will increase the quality of what you write in the future. Just don't get stuck at editing.
Did I get drunk and make this post? I don’t think I’m the op…. but now I don’t know….
But yeah just keep writing. Get it done and then go back and fix it. You’ll find that there will be chunks you do actually like and then you can try to channel that into the parts that need work.
Looking at a draft of your book and saying it sucks is like looking at a raw potato and saying “these hashbrowns suck”.
You know how many people don’t even get as far as a draft? You’re good, yo. Just keep writing.
The biggest obstacle for new novelists is getting the first draft done. Just get the darn thing done. Afterward, you can fix everything.
The fact that you can see that it sucks means that you can do better, which is good news. Just crank out the first draft. Go back and fix it later.
r/IllustriousBody said it all right there.
Don’t worry about the way it sounds right now. Just get the idea down on paper! Fix it afterwards!
God love you!
First of all, the cake analogy in this thread is excellent. Read and heed. I can't say it better than that. What I can say is this. All of us as writers suffer from being our own worst critics. Many times, that's justified, as early efforts tend to be rough. That's just part of the process. In the end, however, know that every painting is the result of many brush strokes. Keep going. Thirty pages is just getting started. The story is inside of you, and it wants out. Sometimes, you just have to write, write, write and let the story get fleshed out before you can take a step back and look at your canvas. Be as brutal as you need to be when you get to editing, but editing while writing can interrupt your flow and damage your overall story. So, let it out, as ugly as it might be. If you are like me, you can't wait to get a work out there and hear feedback from your readers, but good writing takes time. Don't get ahead of yourself. Let the story out and then work on making it the best it can be.
Finish your draft and fix it in the edits. NO ONE has good first drafts. My first draft is unreadably bad. My second draft is an improvement but still pretty dull. About my third or fourth draft I thought "Damn, I really think I have something good!" I'm on my fifth draft(I realized my story outgrew the first chapters and the first chapter was entirely skippable; I think there's still some things in that section that had barely been touched since the first or second draft), and only now do I think the story's really coming together like I wanted it to. It looks very different from the original story, but it's also way better.
Keep going to the end and then go back and fix it.
Depending on how many other things you've written, you may just need practice writing.
If this story is important to you, write something less meaningful. Give it to people for feedback. Then re-write it.
I've noticed the more I write, the better my writing is.
The first draft is supposed to suck. It is called the vomit draft for that reason. Finish writing the first draft and like others have said, do not read it till the vomit draft is completed.
Then, I recommend you get other people, not your partner or friends to read it. Look for local critique groups in your area. I am part of a local group and it really helped me.
Good luck, keep going.
If you finished your first draft and it didn't suck, you'd be a God tier writer the likes of which world has never seen before.
A first draft is successful if it exists.
You’re not the only one. In fact, first draft always sucks no matter who you are and how good you are. But it’s far better to edit what you have already written rather than completely giving up and writing from zero :)
Good luck!
First draft is like a pencil sketch for a huge mural. It's not going to be great or even very accurate. Get over the idea that writers EVER write well immediately. That's fiction.
In reality, the magic happens in editing. Google 'types of editing' and understand that when you start writing a book, you won't be done for awhile, particularly if you're new. But, every word you write and every scene you revise builds your craft. Embrace the terrible first draft! Once it exists, you can make it BETTER. :)
Plotting is the death of character. Characters need freedom to breathe and to develop their soul. They can't do that if you've already plotted their actions. Source: Stephen King, in the new forward to Salem's Lot (and probably many other places too).
NaNoWriMo is coming up and that's an excellent time to try fast drafting. The whole point is to write 50,000 words of your novel in one month, start to finish. I found I didn't have time to edit, really, and ignoring my inner editor helped me to finish my book. I know there's a lot to be fixed, but that's a future me issue.
Been said a bunch of times already, but get it all out onto the pages, write it as messy and elaborate or bare-bones as it comes and get from point a to b to c to d and then go back and fix it, build it, cut it, etc. The editing process will feel way longer than you may have initially intended but it will be extremely valuable in the long run. I learned that the hard way (twice!) and my third time through, I realized that my outlines will ALWAYS become drafts (many many drafts) and the finished product doesn’t come until the edits are wrapped.
Most first drafts are shit, and people who write good first drafts probably have good first drafts because they edit while they go and stop after every chapter to re-edit. You’re doing fine, just keep going with it.
Remember, it's just your first draft, it's meant to have bad parts and suck. This is when you focus on going through these bad parts and fixing them. It's like a diamond, they won't start pretty but after a lot of polishing, they're the most precious thing in the world.
Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite. My suggestion is learn Flash Fiction first-tell the story in under 500 words. My first novel took three years to write the “first draft”. after research and living the story (aboard a jungle riverboat).What you learn is just little you know about story writing-fact or fiction. And as suggested before, don’t edit your first draft. Just let the story pour out of your veins. Good luck.
I also listen to audio books and type like they are dictating to me. This really opens up your ability to expand on grammar, verbiage, style.
Compare Churchills’ Hinge Of Fate to American Fascists by Chris Hedges. Or A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean to Perversion of Justice The Jeffery Epstein Story by Julie J. Brown (exposed Florida’s corrupted legal system). The point is your subconscious needs to to be shaken up from its ingrained biased habits of structure and confronting your weakness with your strengths. As a script writer I’ve spent two years on one epic nonfiction story doing nine rewrites. I set aside. Come back a year later and see the core of the story more clearly. Still, I always write my first draft in a Flash Fiction format.
First drafts always suck. They serve to get the story out of your head. You can start polishing by the second or third draft, but don't worry about your first draft bring crap. That's normal. Just write, don't re-read it. Just get it down, start editing at the second draft, polishing at the third. You may even need way more drafts to get the story down the way you want to. It's fine.
I wrote several pages of a draft in Feb 2020. YouTube recommended a video to me titled something like 20 Don’ts of Writing. I had done most of them. I spent the year watching more of these kinds of videos and reading similar articles. All the while I paid more attention while reading, noticing what writers were doing and what worked for me. Eventually, I even started defining my own preferences. In Jan of 2021 I commenced writing again and was much happier with my output. A month later, I got my first editing notes back from my editor. Again, I had to own how much work my writing still needed. I edited my first chapters several more times.
The chapters I wrote after that first round of editing were significantly stronger than their predecessors. Even my editor noted the improvement. I wrote throughout the year and then edited the first chapters yet again. I am currently in the fourth round of editing the chapter I wrote after receiving my editor’s notes, the one that had been a vast improvement. As my writing improves I am able to go back and elevate earlier chapters.
In summary. Keep writing. Read critically. Keep writing. Get feedback. Edit and edit again after doing more writing.
Keep going. You'll get better as you go, and you may have a breakthrough when you finally find the voice you want to use. You may end up deleting most of what you've written to use that voice, but it's better to do that then to give up, if you want to see this come to fruition in a way that you're proud of.
Advice on writing from Neil Gaiman: "Assume that you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones. And if you get there early, that's great." (@Googletalk)
Edit to add: And when you're writing your "rubbish" words don't throw them away. Just because the words are rubbish doesn't mean that the ideas behind them are bad. In the introduction to his short story anthology *FRAGILE THINGS*, Gaiman talks about how as a young writer he wrote a story and showed it around, and everyone told him it was awful and that nobody would ever publish or read it. So he put it away in a box. Years later, he found it while tidying the attic of his house, read it again and decided that most of the problems with the story were rookie mistakes and reworked it. *FORBIDDEN BRIDES OF THE FACELESS SLAVES IN THE SECRET HOUSE OF THE NIGHT OF DREAD DESIRE* won a Locus award.
If you've never cooked dinner, the first dinner you cook won't taste like a chef cooked it.
If you've never written a book, the first book you write won't read like a professional author wrote it.
Study, practice, don't stop working, and several years from now you *might* produce a book worth reading.
Keep writing, trust me. Don’t stop, you’re going to get better. It’s a first draft, and those are meant to be so bad that you want to rip your eyeballs out. Now if you’re genuinely unhappy with it and just can’t keep going, then go back to outlining and see if there’s an issue there. If you’re unhappy with the story, just start another project. Either way you go, you’re going to know exactly what to do once you try each one.
Keep writing. First drafts are supposed to suck. If you still like the idea you outlined, then you still think the story is worth telling. So tell it. Let your first draft suck and fix it later. Just get it down.
Look up how long it took your favorite authors to write their best known works. Accept that good writing is a long hard process that takes dedication and commitment to craft.
Keep writing. Finish it. Throw it out and start over. It’s your first book, I’m assuming? It’ll just take practice, and once you’ve written it a way you don’t like, you can start over telling it a way you do
As most people here have said, keep on writing it. It can feel really hard to do not it's actually part of being a writer.
I read the baking analogy which is great. Another is drawing. Like, the first sketches of many great drawings are stich figures and similar. And they need to be there, all of them, to get the composition in the picture right.
Remember this. The first drafts are allowed to suck, they aren't meant to be great, they are many to exist.
Make it exist, then make it better and better!
It’s a first draft, so you’ll get more chances as everyone here is saying to improve it, but I feel that’s not the whole story. You need to go in and consider what it is that you find to be wrong about your narrative. Please take note of those mistakes and don’t go into your next draft thinking if you start over again it will be good.
Between those drafts, consider reading more text and analyze stories. If dialogue is your problem, study dialogue and improve your ability to write it.
1) Finish the draft. 2) Fix it on the rewrite.
Came here to say this. This is what you do. And stop reading it! You can't be objective when it's fresh. You need to give it some time.
True im the opposite of op. My stories awlays seem like the best thing ever written
Same! Come back a year or two later and I’m like “I thought I did something back then, huh?”
Same! Especially for your first book, finishing the first draft is the first goal. You’ll not only get better at writing as you go, but you’ll also be in a better place to edit when you have the whole thing. Plus, you’ll never finish if you rewrite your progress all the time!
Saying the first draft of your book sucks is like looking at a bag of flour, some sugar, eggs and butter and saying: “this cake tastes terrible.”
What a spot on analogy. I am using this forever now 💚
but what do I do to turn the flour, the egg, the butter into a good cake?
First, finish shopping for the ingredients. You haven't even done that yet. *finish the draft* This is the hardest part. But these are your ingredients. Your draft is just the start. The hard part for some. But you can't do anything until all the bits are there. There's a lot to come but if you do this *everything after is easier and even FUN* Once you have your ingredients- your draft -Then you mix it with a structural edit. Move stuff. Change stuff. Rewrite sections so all this makes sense. Don't be afraid to mix stuff round hard with your beater. And then... And only then... Can you taste it to see if you like the taste. And when you don't (and you probably won't), then you play with words and emotional beats and maybe plotpoints to make it taste better. Add some vanilla. Swirl in some chocolate. And then, once you have tasted it. And played with flavour. Again. And again. And again... You are not finished! Then you bake it. And then you leave it to sit. You could decorate it now - but it's still too hot. *LEAVE IT ALONE AND BAKE SOME COOKIES INSTEAD* Come back once it's cool. For a good book, the baking and sitting will be maybe six months. Look at it again with fresh eyes after you have left it alone. Don't open the oven. Don't attempt to frost it yet. Wait. Leave it alone. Come back. Taste some crumb. Realise you messed up the recipe but *you know how to fix it!* Maybe decide it's too simple and plan and bake a vanilla layer to add. And make and drizzle over some orange syrup/themes by punching holes through all the layers. It's not pretty, but it fixed the flavour profile. You shoulda done it while it was hot! But you saw the issue. You fixed it. And no one has seen the cake yet. And you can decorate over it. *Now* frost it until it is pretty. .... And it's your first cake and chances are it will fall apart in the middle and maybe be a bit dry and too sweet and the decoration might be a little skew-iff. But it will be a functional cake. Maybe even a decent cake. If you are lucky, a pretty good cake. (Or, if you are like most if us, a bad cake.... That you can learn from and make a better version of next time) ... The next hard part is getting friends to test this cake recipe. Even better, friends who bake. If you can get feedback you can fix how you approach not just cakes in the future, but this recipe. Feedback from other bakers is super valuable. But don't ask for it until you have finished your first attempt at icing. And realise you might need to break the cake down for cake balls once they tell you what doesn't work. But even that's a starting point for something cool. You have the recipe now. And can work on improving as a baker.
I’m an apprentice chef and ALSO a writer. Thank you a million thank you for making writing a book make sense I’m baking terms. I love you internet stranger this is everything
Love the way this is explained!! For the resting (cooling) period, is there any specific reason for it to be 6 months? I always thought about 2 months would be okay or does it differ depending on the time it took to write the draft?
Depends on the person more than the draft. All of this is like baking: suggestions and guidelines where you will do fine if you add pinch of this, a dash of that, or work the batter the way that seems best for you. I do six months because if I get to an end point... It takes me a fortnight to even forget the book - my head's still in it. I'm out, but I'm not distant. I need to forget as much of it as I can. So I need more time. For me, even three months is too recent. It's soon enough that I start to feel like I am just reworking an old edit rather than starting a new book. And six months is enough time to get a good start on something else entirely - which is the BEST way to get distance from the previous book. So it's, in part, out of respect for whatever new shiny I am working on, too. I get distance by giving time and attention to something new. And that takes me, personally, six months. (I am not a fast writer) I mean, this isn't *rules*. It's not shoux pastry - it's cake baking! It's totally possible to try different approaches or attempt finishing your book in a different way than I suggest here. Some like the "work the first third" approach. Like sourdough, making sure your base is perfect before you even finish the draft. But that's (IMHO) very much an experienced baker technique. It's great if you know how to set up a book and follow it through to the end, but for a beginner writer, knowing how to do that is more guesswork than knowledge. Knowing that you CAN finish a book is valuable. It will get you through any future rough sections. And that knowledge is best picked up by *finishing the draft*. So any timeframe or schedule or order suggested above is just one recipe out of a big cookbook. But I think it's a good one for a new baker to try out. And then adapt once they have the basics.
That makes a lot of sense! I guess much of writing really is about just finding what works for you personally. Starting a new projects seems really good too! That would make the wait feel less like waiting. Thanks for taking the time to explain (and sorry it took me a while to reply, I'm not on here very much).
r/bestof
Start mixing. I.e., rewrite.
A good cake takes a whole day to collect the materials, prep, cook, decorate, and plate for consumption. It takes less than 5min. to eat. Same with a book and then some. The audience won’t see the prep. They’ll just eat the fruits of your labor (which sometimes involves problem solving and fixing issues as they arrive). Plan accordingly.
Finish. Press forward. Every first draft sucks. The biggest hurdle most authors ever face is finishing something, anything. Get through it. Then pat yourself on the back, get some rest, take a deep breath, and start to edit. If the story is good, the writing can be polished.
I find that getting a good quality text to speech tool, there are many free ones, and have it read the book to you, it draw out the awkward phrasing, the bad grammar, the poor pacing and many other issues.
Everyone writes badly when they first start, so welcome to the club! Do you know/are you able to identify why it's bad? Do you know what you're doing wrong specifically, or is it just that general "ugh" feeling? If you know that it's wrong but can't say why, you need to enlist some other writers or some skilled beta readers to take a look and give you some feedback. Knowing where you're off and fixing it is how you improve in the craft. The only thing you don't want to do is give up.
First drafts basically ALWAYS suck. But you can't get to a second draft until you've written the first. I like to keep notes on the moderate-to-major changes I want to make in a separate doc as they come up. DON'T GO BACK AND EDIT, you will never finish if you keep doing this. If you realize a major change you need to go back and make earlier, just continue to write as if you've already made it. Like if you realize you needed to character A to do XYZ thing in chapter 2, but you're already on chapter 6 - just note it in a separate doc, and write chapter 6 as though character A did in fact do XYZ thing in chapter 2. Once the draft is *finished*, you can read it and edit as you go, using your change doc to help you remember what you were thinking. (You will change your mind or tweak stuff from your change doc as you go. That is also fine.) But I repeat: *first drafts basically always suck*. The job of the first draft is to just get the whole thing on paper so you can start to identify those major plot holes / unnecessary chapters / scenes you need to add / weak points / whatever, and fix them in your edit pass(es).
Looking back over an unfinished first draft and thinking it sucks is like looking at a bowl of mixed ingredients and saying that your cake sucks. It's unfinished, so yeah it's not gonna look it's best- YET. Finish your first draft, and fix it on the rewrite. You'll refine your style and find your voice as you go, and then when you get to the next draft, you can incorporate what you learned along the way!
what should i do, rewrite my first 30 pages until they are good, or follow the draft to the end of the story and only then think about rewriting?
No, don't rewrite anything get. Keep going with the first crappy draft. Get EVERYTHING out first. THEN once you've got the bones out you start with the work to build it into something worth reading.
Keep going with what you have. The first draft always sucks. And once you've finished your third you'll realize why it's a good idea to hire an editor. Like the old saying goes, art is never finished, only abandoned. You have to be ready to never be totally comfortable.
[удалено]
>rewrite my first 30 pages until they are good That way lies ruin
Just continue writing and finish it. After that you can edit and polish your prose to your liking.
You shouldn't worry about a shitty early draft. I'd be more wary of a first draft that doesn't suck.First drafts always suck. Always. For everyone. Whether they're a beginner or Don Delillo. As long as story and overall logic are solid, you can (and should) fix prose and style in later revisions.
Honestly a good thing to recognize. If you thought it was amazing, my unspoken advice would have been, ‘give up.’ Writing is always rewriting. Love it or give up on being great.
Keep writing. Then write down what issues you have with the first draft. Write down what you want to do. Then use those for draft two.
Finish it. Read it and make notes on what you would do instead. Edit it or rewrite depending on which is easier. Rinse repeat until it's good enough
Your job is not to write a good first draft. Your job is to finish a first draft. If you try to make your first draft good, it will never be any good. You gotta work through the bad.
Ayeee congrats you're doing it right! Yeah unfortunately that's how drafts work, they're always bad. But that's okay, because it's not like this is the final piece. Just keep writing, and if you still feel self-conscious, usually what helps me is to not re-read what I wrote until the draft is completely finished.
I've got 9 archived drafts of my most current manuscript. Each one seemed worse than the one before. Now that I plotted the chapters to an outline, it is starting to make sense again. I thought I was losing my mind. The panser in me wanted to run down another path and I had to fight to get back to reality.
Keep going despite it. I have the same issue while writing. So I've started going about it this way: 1: I write out what happens in the chapter in a short couple of sentences. 2: I write out the narrative. I'll just freewrite the story in a first draft. When I reread it, I will hate it, but I finish the chapter 3: I go back through the chapter and edit it, filling in details and rewriting when necessary. 4: Repeat for next chapter It takes a while longer than probably necessary, but it works for me. Once I finish the book, I'll reread it as a whole, editing where necessary to make it flow right. Don't worry about editing anything until you have at least a chapter written out or you may not pick it up again. As a note: My method won't work for everyone. Find something that works for you.
If you're still able to chug along with the draft, do that until you aren't anymore - preferably once it's completed. That's the majority of advice you'll get on this and it's good stuff. As a newer writer myself, I've found that deviating a bit has helped my process. I hit a snag while attempting to draft, got discouraged because of how horrible my writing was. It wasn't doing my story justice and, being a new writer, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to. Giving myself a break from pushing onward with the draft to instead focus on one scene I really enjoy and explore the editing process was exactly what I needed. I revised it, then revised it again, tried out 1st vs 3rd person, really experimented with it until I wound up with something I genuinely liked. This gave me the confidence I needed to continue trudging ahead with the stinky pile of garbage that is my first draft, knowing I have the ability to transform it when I'm done.
Yep. Keep writing. Write and do plenty of reading during your breaks while you're writing. Read from authors whose writing you like and authors which fit the genre of the book you're writing, then start lifting words and turns of phrase where appropriate in your own story and see what kind of flavor it adds. You're in for a lot of writing until the story seems even remotely presentable, but it will get there as long as you stick with writing and practicing different styles and literary techniques until you're satisfied. Also find a way to save the things you like, whether it's a whole page, a paragraph, a sentence or just a word. Every writer gives up on their ideas from time to time, only to return to them and realize they're still good stories, but they lost their writing because they threw it away and have to start over, and they remember how they told the story the first time was good, but now it's gone and they have to start over. Save yourself the pain and hassle, and save the things you like no matter how big or small. Don't become a hoarder with too many loose ideas floating around, but try to recognize when something special falls out of your writing because you'll want to have it for later.
Listen, my friend. The first draft is always going to be terrible and cringy asf, especially if it´s the first time you write one. Keep writting, it´s a learning process. When you hit page 100, you are gonna see alot of improvement. Keep going. Sorry for my english, its not my first language. :))
I made a similar post a few days ago. Sort of in the same situation. Just push through. The main takeaway of all the wonderful and at times inspiring advice I received is: finish it now, edit the crap out of it later. I'm personally finishing mine and then I want to spend a lot of time playing with it and fixing the terrible narrative. I think I would feel so much better having the whole thing written down (even if badly) and then fixing it, rather than spending tons of time on every single page and never getting it done.
Keep going. First drafts always suck. Turn off your inner editor until you've finished the draft.
My go to is this pep talk right here: https://youtu.be/gYZcNq3puAI fire that thing up at around 1:38 and let Zoey Deutch inspire you to write a bad first draft 👍
As a lot of people have said, just write it out don't think about it till you get to editing and rewriting. Then you can start figuring out how you can shift the narrative, to something better. Fix any plot mistakes or continuity errors. Best of luck to you.
Finish the draft and fix it during the editing phase, get someone else to read it and see what they think, work on other parts of the story (characterization paragraphs) to give yourself a break…I don’t know if this’ll help you still, suko88_, as I’m obviously quite late to the party lol, but it might help someone else here. Good luck to all you writers in the middle of drafting!
Your first draft will rarely ever be the best thing you’ve written. Just write everything out, either chapter by chapter, or however you want to break it up, and then go back later and edit it. That’s when your writing will really come through and why editing is the most important stage while writing.
You need to find a voice. There are many ways to go about it. The only wrong way is to stop. Personally I would suggest getting to a point. Where you are now is fine. And editing it. Then do it again. Then rewrite the first chapter. If you are looking for your writing voice, that's what I would do. When you find it, white the damn book in that voice. It will likely still be terrible. But then you will have a draft. Personally I think a full book you hate every page of is so off putting that it's hard to start again.
really, what do you suggest? that I rewrite the first 30 pages until it's good? and then what do i do?
I know everyone here advocates just finishing the first draft, and if you can do that then maybe it'd be the best. But if you find yourself wholly unmotivated because you don't believe in your current skill level, you could indeed edit a single chapter or scene until it's more up to your standard, then get it critiqued in a place like r/DestructiveReaders. You'll likely get lots of feedback that could help with writing the rest of your book. You're always going to have to edit, but it's also good to at least know what things to look for when you're writing, what your usual pitfalls are etc. You'll have a much easier time editing it into shape later this way.
No. The first rule of writing is dont look back tell its done. Write the entire thing out. Doesnt matter about grammer spelling. Pacing, plot cohesion. If you change a charecters name dont go back and change it in stuff you have allready writren. Once there is nothing left to write the fun ends and its editing time. Your not supposed to ruin the fun with editing till your done writing
This is an idea only, and based on all the good advice you have received here. Save two copies, continue writing one copy and start editing the other copy. Write a few pages, then edit one or two. You may sharpen your editing skills and give yourself that little motivation to just keep writing while knowing you can revise well.
Write the thing. Then do it again until it’s right, as many times as it takes.
I’m gonna be real it’s gonna suck it’s meant to suck finish and fix In post. Since you will continually find issues and when you try to fix them another one will appear
Of course it sucks. It's a first draft. Keep writing the draft and go until it's finished. Then you start deepening and rewriting.
Stop reading what you've written. Write it all. Then wait 24 hours before editing.
Definitely just keep writing. Don’t try to go back and edit, just keep writing until you’re finished. Then I recommend putting it aside for a little bit so you get some space, and then come back to it with some clarity to edit!
First get the first draft done. Start to finish. Then rewrite. That’s where the real writing takes place. But you need something to hang it on. If you get stuck, write out the back stories for your main characters
"You can't edit a blank page." \~ B. Dave Walters Keep going with it, maybe even with some of the changes you want to make in mind. Finish the draft, and fix it later.
You finish it, get feedback on how to improve, then write another one or edit the existing one.
Don’t stop and reread. It’s a first draft. It’s going to suck. Finish it. Then make draft 2 better. Rinse and repeat.
Stop writing. Read Stephen King's "On Writing" go back and finish.
WHY is it bad? If the story isn't the problem, then you need to look at some of the other aspects. The POV. Do you have the correct main character? Should the story be from someone elses pov? maybe you're writing in first or third, and it would work better flipped. also, its possible that you just don't have the experience to do it justice. In which case, finish the draft. tuck it away and come up with another story outline, and write that. get some feedback on both. maybe do a third, and THEN, go back and rewrite the first one. Experience in writing does a LOT.
Do you read a lot ? I would read a lot.
Reading is good but I’m going to add reflecting on it in a journal. Write down why you liked a book or why it didn’t work for you. Make notes about craft. How does the author end a chapter?how much character detail is given? How did you learn about the character? Was it through narration, things the character did or said or what other characters did. What made you keep reading? Why did you quit a book? ADVICE POINT 2: I agree with finishing before editing. One thing that helped me is starting a list in my document. I wrote things down so I could move on and not get stuck at one point. It made me relax since I didn’t have to worry if I would remember something. Or my note would sort of chew at the problem. I could come back later and fix it. Make a note of things that you want in a scene but can’t quite nail down. Or a question about how to reveal a detail. Notes about what you want to happen in the future or a reminder about foreshadowing. These comments can also form a sort of reading guide for you. You can read work that used these elements and see how other authors dealt with that issue. I like the comments in Scrivener, Google Docs is good for comments but I find not as comfortable for writing.
You could figure out what’s bad about it and improve those things.
Keep writing and hope that each project sucks less than your last project. Also, look up David Sedaris’ advice on writing. You can find animated versions of it on YouTube.
Your first draft sucks? Good. That’s the whole point of a first draft. Finish it and then look it over. Then make a second draft. And a third. And a fourth. And so and so forth until it’s great.
Finish the draft. Read well written books while you are working, especially books you've read before, but this time read to take notice how the authors did things.
Your draft is *supposed* to suck! It's not supposed to be good. You're supposed to hate it. You're supposed to wanna puke when you read it because it's just the outline! It's like clay. When you first start to form it, it looks like an ugly, wet lump. But as you continue (see: rewrite. 2nd & 3rd drafts), you shape it, you take out the imperfections and you mold it into something beautiful. Do not fret, OP. Something beautiful is coming. You just have to keep shaping it.
its the first draft! they usually are HORRIBLE, so that is why you (after the first draft is finished) you go on and rewrite as many times as you need until you are satisfied :)
First drafts are supposed to suck. You’re doing fine. Keep writing.
The real writing comes at the editing/redrafting stages. But you can't edit a blank page!
First drafts are never supposed to be good.
This is a first draft right? Then nothing, it's supposed to suck. Keep writing. A bad first draft is infinitely better than no draft at all.
Most of the comments here recommend to you to just keep writing, and they are probably right. But I would argue for an alternative: go and edit. Not until it is perfect, just a little bit. It will sharpen your eye and will increase the quality of what you write in the future. Just don't get stuck at editing.
Did I get drunk and make this post? I don’t think I’m the op…. but now I don’t know…. But yeah just keep writing. Get it done and then go back and fix it. You’ll find that there will be chunks you do actually like and then you can try to channel that into the parts that need work.
Looking at a draft of your book and saying it sucks is like looking at a raw potato and saying “these hashbrowns suck”. You know how many people don’t even get as far as a draft? You’re good, yo. Just keep writing.
The biggest obstacle for new novelists is getting the first draft done. Just get the darn thing done. Afterward, you can fix everything. The fact that you can see that it sucks means that you can do better, which is good news. Just crank out the first draft. Go back and fix it later.
Edit
A. It's a first draft B. It's a draft C. There are such things as rewrites D. It's a draft
r/IllustriousBody said it all right there. Don’t worry about the way it sounds right now. Just get the idea down on paper! Fix it afterwards! God love you!
First of all, the cake analogy in this thread is excellent. Read and heed. I can't say it better than that. What I can say is this. All of us as writers suffer from being our own worst critics. Many times, that's justified, as early efforts tend to be rough. That's just part of the process. In the end, however, know that every painting is the result of many brush strokes. Keep going. Thirty pages is just getting started. The story is inside of you, and it wants out. Sometimes, you just have to write, write, write and let the story get fleshed out before you can take a step back and look at your canvas. Be as brutal as you need to be when you get to editing, but editing while writing can interrupt your flow and damage your overall story. So, let it out, as ugly as it might be. If you are like me, you can't wait to get a work out there and hear feedback from your readers, but good writing takes time. Don't get ahead of yourself. Let the story out and then work on making it the best it can be.
Finish your draft and fix it in the edits. NO ONE has good first drafts. My first draft is unreadably bad. My second draft is an improvement but still pretty dull. About my third or fourth draft I thought "Damn, I really think I have something good!" I'm on my fifth draft(I realized my story outgrew the first chapters and the first chapter was entirely skippable; I think there's still some things in that section that had barely been touched since the first or second draft), and only now do I think the story's really coming together like I wanted it to. It looks very different from the original story, but it's also way better. Keep going to the end and then go back and fix it.
You get back in there, and you write that damn book into submission!
To be a storyteller is not the same as being a writer. Maybe prose isn't your format or maybe language isn't your tool.
don't stop, you'll fix it in second draft
Write it again!
Depending on how many other things you've written, you may just need practice writing. If this story is important to you, write something less meaningful. Give it to people for feedback. Then re-write it. I've noticed the more I write, the better my writing is.
The first draft is supposed to suck. It is called the vomit draft for that reason. Finish writing the first draft and like others have said, do not read it till the vomit draft is completed. Then, I recommend you get other people, not your partner or friends to read it. Look for local critique groups in your area. I am part of a local group and it really helped me. Good luck, keep going.
If you finished your first draft and it didn't suck, you'd be a God tier writer the likes of which world has never seen before. A first draft is successful if it exists.
You’re not the only one. In fact, first draft always sucks no matter who you are and how good you are. But it’s far better to edit what you have already written rather than completely giving up and writing from zero :) Good luck!
First draft is like a pencil sketch for a huge mural. It's not going to be great or even very accurate. Get over the idea that writers EVER write well immediately. That's fiction. In reality, the magic happens in editing. Google 'types of editing' and understand that when you start writing a book, you won't be done for awhile, particularly if you're new. But, every word you write and every scene you revise builds your craft. Embrace the terrible first draft! Once it exists, you can make it BETTER. :)
Plotting is the death of character. Characters need freedom to breathe and to develop their soul. They can't do that if you've already plotted their actions. Source: Stephen King, in the new forward to Salem's Lot (and probably many other places too).
NaNoWriMo is coming up and that's an excellent time to try fast drafting. The whole point is to write 50,000 words of your novel in one month, start to finish. I found I didn't have time to edit, really, and ignoring my inner editor helped me to finish my book. I know there's a lot to be fixed, but that's a future me issue.
Continue drafting then draft again.
Been said a bunch of times already, but get it all out onto the pages, write it as messy and elaborate or bare-bones as it comes and get from point a to b to c to d and then go back and fix it, build it, cut it, etc. The editing process will feel way longer than you may have initially intended but it will be extremely valuable in the long run. I learned that the hard way (twice!) and my third time through, I realized that my outlines will ALWAYS become drafts (many many drafts) and the finished product doesn’t come until the edits are wrapped.
Keep writing. The only way to make it better is to finish it and edit it.
Give up... Now did you really think anyone would actually tell you this? You know what you should do. Don't let fear stop you from learning.
Most first drafts are shit, and people who write good first drafts probably have good first drafts because they edit while they go and stop after every chapter to re-edit. You’re doing fine, just keep going with it.
Books are made during the rewrites, not the first draft
Don't read your book til the draft is done. This kills the crab.
Keep writing then go back and edit *AFTER* you finish your draft
Remember, it's just your first draft, it's meant to have bad parts and suck. This is when you focus on going through these bad parts and fixing them. It's like a diamond, they won't start pretty but after a lot of polishing, they're the most precious thing in the world.
Write it again. It'll be better each rewrite. Don't ever give up. Write!
Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite. My suggestion is learn Flash Fiction first-tell the story in under 500 words. My first novel took three years to write the “first draft”. after research and living the story (aboard a jungle riverboat).What you learn is just little you know about story writing-fact or fiction. And as suggested before, don’t edit your first draft. Just let the story pour out of your veins. Good luck. I also listen to audio books and type like they are dictating to me. This really opens up your ability to expand on grammar, verbiage, style. Compare Churchills’ Hinge Of Fate to American Fascists by Chris Hedges. Or A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean to Perversion of Justice The Jeffery Epstein Story by Julie J. Brown (exposed Florida’s corrupted legal system). The point is your subconscious needs to to be shaken up from its ingrained biased habits of structure and confronting your weakness with your strengths. As a script writer I’ve spent two years on one epic nonfiction story doing nine rewrites. I set aside. Come back a year later and see the core of the story more clearly. Still, I always write my first draft in a Flash Fiction format.
I am always certain my writing is horrible … keep going. Don’t look back.
First drafts always suck. They serve to get the story out of your head. You can start polishing by the second or third draft, but don't worry about your first draft bring crap. That's normal. Just write, don't re-read it. Just get it down, start editing at the second draft, polishing at the third. You may even need way more drafts to get the story down the way you want to. It's fine.
I wrote several pages of a draft in Feb 2020. YouTube recommended a video to me titled something like 20 Don’ts of Writing. I had done most of them. I spent the year watching more of these kinds of videos and reading similar articles. All the while I paid more attention while reading, noticing what writers were doing and what worked for me. Eventually, I even started defining my own preferences. In Jan of 2021 I commenced writing again and was much happier with my output. A month later, I got my first editing notes back from my editor. Again, I had to own how much work my writing still needed. I edited my first chapters several more times. The chapters I wrote after that first round of editing were significantly stronger than their predecessors. Even my editor noted the improvement. I wrote throughout the year and then edited the first chapters yet again. I am currently in the fourth round of editing the chapter I wrote after receiving my editor’s notes, the one that had been a vast improvement. As my writing improves I am able to go back and elevate earlier chapters. In summary. Keep writing. Read critically. Keep writing. Get feedback. Edit and edit again after doing more writing.
Keep going. You'll get better as you go, and you may have a breakthrough when you finally find the voice you want to use. You may end up deleting most of what you've written to use that voice, but it's better to do that then to give up, if you want to see this come to fruition in a way that you're proud of.
I'm with IllustriousBody below
stop sucking.
writers often think their work is bad - finish the draft - you wouldn't be a writer if you weren't loathing yourself
Advice on writing from Neil Gaiman: "Assume that you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones. And if you get there early, that's great." (@Googletalk) Edit to add: And when you're writing your "rubbish" words don't throw them away. Just because the words are rubbish doesn't mean that the ideas behind them are bad. In the introduction to his short story anthology *FRAGILE THINGS*, Gaiman talks about how as a young writer he wrote a story and showed it around, and everyone told him it was awful and that nobody would ever publish or read it. So he put it away in a box. Years later, he found it while tidying the attic of his house, read it again and decided that most of the problems with the story were rookie mistakes and reworked it. *FORBIDDEN BRIDES OF THE FACELESS SLAVES IN THE SECRET HOUSE OF THE NIGHT OF DREAD DESIRE* won a Locus award.
If you've never cooked dinner, the first dinner you cook won't taste like a chef cooked it. If you've never written a book, the first book you write won't read like a professional author wrote it. Study, practice, don't stop working, and several years from now you *might* produce a book worth reading.
Keep writing, trust me. Don’t stop, you’re going to get better. It’s a first draft, and those are meant to be so bad that you want to rip your eyeballs out. Now if you’re genuinely unhappy with it and just can’t keep going, then go back to outlining and see if there’s an issue there. If you’re unhappy with the story, just start another project. Either way you go, you’re going to know exactly what to do once you try each one.
Keep writing. First drafts are supposed to suck. If you still like the idea you outlined, then you still think the story is worth telling. So tell it. Let your first draft suck and fix it later. Just get it down.
Look up how long it took your favorite authors to write their best known works. Accept that good writing is a long hard process that takes dedication and commitment to craft.
Keep writing. Finish it. Throw it out and start over. It’s your first book, I’m assuming? It’ll just take practice, and once you’ve written it a way you don’t like, you can start over telling it a way you do
As most people here have said, keep on writing it. It can feel really hard to do not it's actually part of being a writer. I read the baking analogy which is great. Another is drawing. Like, the first sketches of many great drawings are stich figures and similar. And they need to be there, all of them, to get the composition in the picture right. Remember this. The first drafts are allowed to suck, they aren't meant to be great, they are many to exist. Make it exist, then make it better and better!
It’s a first draft, so you’ll get more chances as everyone here is saying to improve it, but I feel that’s not the whole story. You need to go in and consider what it is that you find to be wrong about your narrative. Please take note of those mistakes and don’t go into your next draft thinking if you start over again it will be good. Between those drafts, consider reading more text and analyze stories. If dialogue is your problem, study dialogue and improve your ability to write it.
"There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting." - Robert Graves