Hi! I'm trying to finish a novel and I'm at this stage when there's only 5 or 6 chapters left to finish my first draft. This is not the first time I've been there, and all previous attempts have ended with finished works tidied away in a drawer somewhere. Problem is: half of my brain is already rewriting and editing the beginning and the other half is simply starting other projects.
I don't know if it's a sign I should ease up on it a little, work on something else for a while until I feel up to finishing my first draft properly. Or should I stick with it, even if I am writing more and more slowly and getting upset with what I am producing? Has anybody got any tips to get over this first-draft-fed-up syndrome?
My advice would be do not edit until you have finished your first draft. I know how tempting it can be as doubt starts to creep in.
Back in college my creative writing teacher gave us some really encouraging advice: 'Your first drafts are always going to be...' I'll let your imagination fill in the last word.
Also as a part of our course we were encourage to buy 'Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg' a brilliant book about the writing process and she also talks about not listening to the 'editor's voice' inside your head because the first draft contains a lot of powerful emotion that you are unlikely to capture again. Editing is about refining your work, first drafts are getting your initial ideas out so don't worry.
I hope this helps and good luck x
Nathalie, don't do any more revisions until you've got to the end. If the end doesn't work, then you'll know you must make changes.
There is a cycle of always revising and never finishing that we can all get into so easily. There's the fear that it'll never work, never be good enough, it's slipping out of your control - and it stops you from pushing on to the end.
Put all thoughts of what's next and what needs changing aside, and push on to The End. It may be rubbish, but you'll have done it, and you'll no longer have that horrid feeling of having hit the buffers getting in the way while you smarten it all up.
Lorraine
I agree with Jonathan, you need to get it finished, you are allowed to take a rest of course, but get it done. Once it is finished, as Jonathan has proved with his work it takes over and for want of a better way of putting it, it takes a life of its own. You of course still have to give birth to it.
Keep at it,it will take over.
Regards Paul