Part 3.1 Redrafting
30 mins
- Discover the importance of reflecting on your writing
- Explore how, where and when to make changes
Reviewing and Redrafting
The message is clear: get the first draft down, whatever its quality. The first draft is the starting point; editing is where the writing begins.
Reflection
I do mostly agree that it’s important to start writing as soon as possible, both to avoid pressuring the draft too much (you can expect the first version of the story to be dodgy) and to keep your regular writing fitness up.
However, as someone who has written the draft of a novel three times, I would say that lived experience has taught me that writing something in detail from beginning to end without knowing some key points of the plot can feel like an inefficient way to work out the story.
But we are talking about short stories here, and so my general observation is probably irrelevant.
Besides, whatever time you can waste with blindly creating the first draft of a novel without planning, then needing to redo it, is compensated by the practice and satisfaction you receive.
Exercise
Review the story which you wrote at the end of week 2. Review it using the following questions:
- Do the characters come across vividly?
My characters were each indistinct in some ways; either their personalities or appearances. I added some detail to each.
- Is any of your word usage surprising? Does it help the reader to ‘see’ the characters?
I think that one physical description was clear, but otherwise the characters were slightly unformed.
- Now that you look at it again do you think any of the descriptions are predictable and dull?
It’s more that my descriptions are scant than dull. I tend to dislike dedicating a paragraph to description and prefer to show the characters in conversation / action. I miss out on details this way, so it’s a balance I have to learn.
- Are any of the words and phrases you have used too familiar?
No; I think I have been able to use ordinary words in a particular way.
Exercise
We are invited to discuss our “radio story” with fellow contributors. Was there enough content to call it a “story”?
For the time being, we are told to think of a story as a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. [Oxford comma my own.]
Most of us agreed that what we had done was too introductory to be a story in its own right.
Give the course a spin yourself!
www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction