7 Reasons Why Your First Draft Sucks

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

First drafts are written first for a reason.

Getting to the end of a first draft is an accomplishment that ought to be celebrated, no matter what state that draft is in. It takes a lot of effort and determination to write an entire novel. It takes planning and brainstorming, and uses up a ton of creative juice to get all those ideas from our heads to the page.

It’s also not uncommon to stumble a bit and write a first draft that’s, shall we say, less than stellar. Maybe it even sucks.

If this is you, take heart—you’re not alone. 

Bad first drafts happen all the time, even to professional authors with dozens of books under their writing belts. Writing is a creative endeavor and you can’t force creativity, even if you can plow through it and keep writing when the muse is on vacation.

3 Steps to Crafting a Stronger First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Don’t just write a good book. Write a great story.

Fiction is an odd combination of skills. The craft of writing is technical, with rules and techniques that achieve different results, yet the art of storytelling is visceral, relying on creativity and instinct to pluck the best pieces from our imagination.

While the story is often what grabs us first, it can quickly get overshadowed by the technical aspects. Is the opening line hooking readers? Should this be first or third person? Is there too much backstory? Instead of crafting a story readers can’t put down, we’re counting how many adverbs are in each chapter.

This can lead to technically well-written novels, but not great stories.

Now, I’m not saying ignore the technical side of writing—that’s how you bring a wonderful story to life—but don’t lose sight of the joy and magic you felt when that story idea originally came to you.

Why You *Shouldn’t* Edit That Last Scene Before Moving On

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If you want to keep your writing momentum going, you might not want to edit your previous scene.

On Monday, I shared the pros of editing and reading what you wrote during your last writing session. Today, let’s look at the cons of doing so.

There’s a lot of advice that says editing what you just wrote is a bad idea. It’s better to start fresh and move forward with your current draft without worrying about what came before. That way, you can focus 100% on new material and have a much more productive day.

When I was starting out and developing my writing skills, I put enormous effort into getting each chapter right before I wrote the next. I’d go through it over and over until I’d polished it to death. It was as if every chapter was a manuscript all its own and it went through a full-on revision process.

Bulking Up: Fleshing Out a Too-Short Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janie_Hardy

What can you do when your novel is too short?

Despite writing fantasy (which is known to be looooong), I typically write sparse first drafts. I'm not a fan of heavy description, and only add the bare minimum to my drafts unless nudged by a critique partner to describe more. I even have a beta reader specifically for this, since I know it's a weakness of mine, and a strength of hers.

My first drafts are full of "white rooms" and conversations in sketchy locations (and not the good kind). I always need to do a revision pass that focuses on description to make sure I add all those details in.

Which means my first drafts are almost always too short.

Sparse-draft writers come in many flavors, and while my quirk is description, others might scrimp on stage direction, or action, or even internalization. Whatever their preferences, they wind up with a draft that needs bulking up instead of the typical trimming down most writers endure.

If you're a sparse writer, here are things to do to hit your target word count.  

How I Trick My Pantser Brain into Plotting

E. J. Wenstrom, @EJWenstrom

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Plotter or pantser, there's a lot to be said for just getting the story down--even if it's a mess. E.J. Wenstrom shares tips on how to hash out a novel.

E. J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. Her award-winning fantasy series Chronicles of the Third Realm War features a peculiar mashup of mythology, folklore, and an extra dash of her own special brand of chaos. It starts with Royal Palm Literary Award Book of the Year Mud (#1), Tides (#2), and Sparks (#3), as well as the prequel Rain (#0).

When she isn’t writing fiction, E. J. Wenstrom is a regular contributor to DIY MFA and BookRiot, and co-hosts the FANTASY+GIRL Podcast.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Podcast

Take it away E.J….

A Three-Step Plan for Returning to a Partially Finished Manuscript

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Getting back to an old manuscript after a break is often harder than starting one anew.

Last week, I sent my new manuscript off to my agent (yay!). This was a bit trickier than usual, because I’ve been juggling two projects—revising this manuscript while drafting another. They’re completely different markets and genres (an adult science fiction and a middle grade fantasy) so there’s no cross-contamination of ideas or styles, but it did mean that after I received feedback on the adult novel, I had to give it most of my attention to meet my due date.

That left my poor little first draft languishing for two months while I revised the other manuscript. And after two months of ignoring it, it’s a little tough to just dive back in and start writing again.

Being away from a writing project for a while kills your momentum for that project.

Stop or Go On? Should You Revise or Keep Writing That First Draft?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Drafting a novel is often a messy process, because there are so many different ways to do it. Do you get it perfect on the first try, or worry about perfection later?

There are a lot of things I don't worry about in a first draft. My characters aren't fully formed yet, I don't always know what world building details matter, and my plot might change, even though I outline in great detail. I write a first draft to get the idea in my head down on paper, and then I figure out the best way to revise it.

Not matter what your process is, sometimes amazing ideas just happen as you write. The characters say or do something you weren't expecting, and you get that happy little buzz of excitement when multiple minor details converge into awesomeness.

And then you realize there's absolutely no groundwork in the novel for that amazing idea.

What should you do? Stop writing, go back, and put in the groundwork for this scene to have its full impact, or keep going and worry about it during revisions?

Following Directions: Editing First Draft Feedback on The Shifter

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Ever wonder what the original draft of a published novel looked like? Here's a peek behind the curtain and a look into the critiquing process.

Every Saturday I critique someone's work and post it for all to see, but I've also done the same to my own opening page. Fair's fair.

I came across this early post from 2010 where I showed excerpts from the very first draft of The Shifter (back when it was still The Pain Merchants), and the feedback I'd received from my critique group. Not only did I share what they said, I shared what I did, and explained why I found the comment helpful.

I've always been interested in the thought process and decision-making behind writing, so hopefully this will help other writers apply the feedback from their own critiques. It might even give them some insight into why they might have gotten a particular comment.

First Look at a First Draft: How to Revise Your Manuscript

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A first draft is a wonderful thing, but it always needs more work.

There's something exciting and rewarding about a first draft. The story that's been in our heads is finally down on paper and we can see how it developed. Sometimes it unfolded exactly how we pictured, but more often we encountered snags here and there and discovered fun twists and plots as we wrote. The draft might even be, shall we say, a little messy.

And that's okay, because first drafts are often messy and filled with holes. It's what you do with it from here that really matters. As the adage goes...writing is rewriting.

(Here's more on If at First You Don't Succeed...Then You Know You're Writing a First Draft)

During that first look, I like to start with the macro structural issues, because if they aren't working, no amount of polishing the text is going to help. It's much easier to do the heavier rewrites in draft form before the story becomes mentally "set in stone." Drafts are supposed to be messed with. So I recommend analyzing your goal and plot structure to make sure your story has something driving the plot, reasons for those somethings to be happening, and that you keep building your stakes to the end.

You've Finished NaNoWriMo: Now What?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday is for all those writers who just wrote their hearts out in November and aren't sure what to do next.

A big congratulations to all the NaNo'ers out there who made it through the month. No matter how many words you wrote, rejoice that you dedicated time to writing.

Now that it's over, here are some suggestions on what to do next:

A Faster Way to Write a First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy 

Writers are always looking for a way to write faster, and sometimes, writing more means starting out with less.

For this year’s NaNoWriMo, I tried something different to see if I could raise my word count and productivity, and get a finished first draft faster. Since my goal was 80,000 words, I’d started a few weeks earlier than November 1, and planned to finish the first draft by November 30.

In seven weeks, I wrote my 80,000 words, 50,000 of them during NaNo.

What constitutes a “fast first draft” varies by writer, but for me, that’s at least half the time it normally takes me to complete a first draft, and a third of the time for those harder-to-write books. That’s an improvement of 50-66% over my regular drafting process. Writers who already write that fast might be able to shorten their drafting times as well.

Do You Get My Meaning? Providing Emotional Clarity in Your Writing

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Emotions don't always come through in our writing, especially during that first draft. Here's an updated look at making our scenes emotionally clear.

There's a lot of writing that happens in our heads and off the page--we brainstorm, we outline, we talk it through with friends, we think about it as we go about our day. All of these writing moments help us understand a scene and what we want to have happen in that scene, but it doesn't always make it to the page the way we want it to.

This happens quite often with the emotions our character feel.

We might have characters feel something or react to something in a scene, and why they do it is very clear in our minds. But those reasons aren't shown in the surrounding text, so for the reader, those actions aren't so clear. Here's an example from my third novel, Darkfall:

"I'm sure Jeatar can find someone to fill in for you." He glanced at Jeatar, who paused and looked at me as if unsure whether or not to agree to that.

I bristled. "There is no one to fill in for me. His people are spread thin enough as it is."

The "I bristled" is what inspired this article, because I could see one of my beta readers marking that and asking, "Why is she upset?" There's nothing in the scene that shows why Nya finds this suggestion annoying. She has some issues with the person saying it, but not enough to warrant her reaction based solely on that. Nya's reasons for being upset by this aren't coming through. "I bristled" just isn't enough to carry the emotion behind her reaction if you don't already know why she's upset.

Writers Take Heart: First Drafts Don't Always Suck

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Just because it's a first draft doesn't mean it has to be a terrible manuscript. 

There's a common term in the writing world: the s%#@y first draft. Despite the harshness of the words, it's actually meant as encouragement. Most first drafts are rough and not very good, and that's the point. They're not supposed to be, because they're a brain dump to get an idea down and see how it all works.

But many writers--especially new writers--think a novel pops perfectly from the author's head. When that doesn't happen, they get frustrated and discouraged. Some may even given up entirely, which is a shame.

It’s a Start: What Not to Worry About in a First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Let’s continue with first drafts with an updated look at what not to worry about in a first draft.

Writing a novel is a lot of work. There are plots to weave, subplots to finagle, characters to grow, conflicts to craft, and that’s before you get to the actual writing part. With so much to worry about, it might be good to know there are some things you don’t have to worry about until after your first draft is complete (such as spelling and grammar).

Every Last Detail

You don’t need to have every detail in the draft planned in advance. It’s okay if you’re not sure exactly what something looks like or how something works.

Start Me Up: Planning and Writing a First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

I've had multiple writers this week ask me about writing their first novel, so this week's Refresher Friday revisits (and updates) planning and writing that first draft. 

Starting a new novel is both exhilarating and frustrating. There's the excitement of the fresh idea, the promise of the characters, the snippets of cool scenes popping in and out of your head.

Then there's the hard work of actually getting it all down. Figuring out where to start, what to do before you actually begin writing, what process you want to use. Even with four published novels under my belt, I'm no different than any other writer when it comes to first drafts.

The Difference Between Editing and Revising a Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes an updated look at the difference between editing and revising. And for a deeper look on same theme, Jami Gold just wrote about this as well (which is what inspired me to pull mine out of the archives for this week). Enjoy! 

You often hear "edit" and "revise" used interchangeably, but it's helpful to think of them as two different things, because they really do focus on different aspects of the process.

Editing is the line by line tweaks that polish your text. 

Revision is more macro level, changing parts of the story. 

Which do you do first? I revise first, because that covers the big issues. The things that may take a lot of work. Once the story is unfolding how I want, then I edit, polishing it until it shines. For example, there’s no need to polish the text of a paragraph if I might cut that entire scene. Makes more sense to wait until the story is solid.

5 Reasons Your First Draft Hates You

By Florence Gonsalves, @florencefornow

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Many writers have a love/hate relationship with their first drafts, and often, that relationship depends on how well the draft is going at the time. Please help me welcome Florence Gonsalves to the lecture hall today to share five (fun) reasons why your first draft hates you.

Florence graduated from Dartmouth College in 2015 with a major in philosophy. Upon getting her diploma, she promptly abandoned Kant and after numerous jobs and internships pursued her lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. Her debut novel, Love and Other Carnivorous Plants, releases today.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram |

Take it away Florence...

A Tip for Getting Through Hard-to-Write Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Even when a draft is going well, there’s bound to be at least one scene in a novel that gives us trouble. Maybe we’re not sure how it unfolds, or we’re missing a key emotional component, or it might even be that we’re not ready to write it or just don’t want to deal with whatever the scene covers right now.

When this happens, we usually get stuck. It might feel like writer’s block, but it’s not—it’s just a hard-to-write scene.

This happened to me recently, though it was more like four chapters (and entire story-structure turning point) than a single scene. These chapters cover the Dark Moment and launch act three, and there’s a lot of heavy, emotional stuff going on. The problem, is that I have a lot of stuff going on in my own life, so I flat out didn’t feel up to plunging myself into all that heartbreak and soul searching to do these chapters justice.

So I didn’t. Instead, I blitzed past it.

How Writing in Chunks Can Make You a More Productive Writer

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

When I’m working on a new draft, I like to write in chunks. It’s a way of fast drafting in small sections that keeps my productivity high, but also lets me control the story. The smaller chunks allow for spontaneity, but I never let the story run too far without seeing how it fits in with the rest of the plot.

This has kept me from going off on tangents I’d later have to cut, and given me unexpected ideas that turned into the best parts of the novel. Writing in chunks lets me both plot and pants at the same time, so I get the benefits of both processes in a way that works with my writing style.

(Here’s more on fast drafting your first draft)

After lots of trial and error, I’ve discovered that three chapters is the right size for me—four if I’m writing dual points of view—and I develop those chunks of chapters at the same time. Once they’re at “solid first draft quality,” I move on to the next set.

Overcoming Adversity Through Adverbs

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy


You've no doubt heard it over and over: never use adverbs in your writing. Sound advice, but if you follow it to the extreme, you could miss out on their very useful properties.

As bad a rep as adverbs have, they're actually pretty handy during a first draft. They allow you to jot down how a character feels or how they say something without losing your momentum. You can keep writing, and go back and revise later.