OKAY THIS VID IS A TINY BIT LATE!!! BUT I hope you enjoy anyway lol. Had to cut out a really important part of this video about seeing first drafts as less of a "problem" and more of an opportunity to render, SO I will be back with more drafts. Let me know if there's a particular draft you want to see and I'll make it happen. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro/first drafts are beautiful 1:51 - Excerpt 1 (weaving timelines, verbs, punctuation) 7:35 - "You need to destroy your first draft" 9:24 - Excerpt 2 (flow, voice, specificity) 13:47 - Excerpt 3 (insecurity, writing "purpose," expansion) 19:09 - The instinct to edit 19:33 - Why do we "hate" first drafts?
I’m literally gonna cry this is the nicest comment I’ve ever gotten 😭 thanks so much I’m so happy to have inspired & thrilled you liked the excerpts!!!! 💖💖💖
I wonder how different a lot of things would be if we celebrated our first drafts instead of throwing them into the pyre 🥺 I get where the meanness comes from, and the tough love and all that. But it’s odd to me when we’re first taught to slaughter a first draft when it’s greatest gift is simply being. And it takes a long time until you discover for yourself what a first draft is for you in your own writing process, and still figuring that out because every year it feels different 🤣 I am brave today, Rachel. Here's a little first draftish from me. --- In some ways it’s not a haunting. At least in movies there’d be a plot-a family heirloom rediscovered on the same night you’re meant to die; something lurking through the woods, not a drunkard from a bar; static images above the stereo while you’re driving late at night; hints of voices you never noticed behind a deadbolt opened wide. These are stories: plots. An entire haunting in just the premise. Something malevolent, because of course, makes it worth it for survival. But this has none of it. There’s no story-there’s nothing tying it to something wrong. But there’s this little thing called a conscience stamping, 'Liar' beneath its heel.
I'm learning to love drafting, as my biggest hurdle for a long time has been getting started on projects. I tend to line edit as I go, so they're pretty clean drafts, but doing that first pass is often a struggle. But I'm trying to lower the standards I set for myself so that it's not such a daunting task. I really like the bracket method where you summarize what all needs to happen in between bits of prose-- I used to be staunch about writing start-to-finish but as my projects have gotten bigger, I've started to jump around a lot more!
Oh man I literally love this video concept and your excerpts are all amazing, the sensory details in the first excerpt?? *chef's kiss* We SHOULD celebrate first drafts more!! Sometimes if I revise too many times, that initial emotionality and spontaneity of thought starts to disappear so I've been trying to tread the line between polished and raw.
I love it when you share your writing!! Especially when you analyze/talk about it like this. Also, Rachel, my book is getting published! Wanted to thank you for the many times you inspired me and kept me company through the process. (Yay!)
Hahaha when you said the word burgeoning sounded like something Hannibal would say, I was like, hm, yeah. But then I reread "when did he look through the glass of his burgeoning youth and see something faithless reflected back at him?" in Mads Mikkelsen's voice in my head like four times with increasing accuracy and it got funnier every single time. My god you were right.
This is so great and I am really inspired to write now! I get very "in my head" about the first draft instead of just writing but it's so important to remember that it's not something to worry about, because it's the FIRST draft, not the ONLY draft. Also, can I just say the line about his vision becoming a kaleidoscope is SO FIRE ❤❤
Yessss just the first draft not the only one for sure! First drafts aren’t taking stances-they just are, and having that mentality has helped a lot! & thank you hehe I’m curious how I’ll revise it or if it’ll stay that way!
@@rachelwritesbooks also I know this is random but when you upload I get a surge of happiness because you are my favorite writer on this platform and I'm always curious about your work and your updates and I like to write while listening to your videos ☺️☺️☺️
Seeing your drafts and the nuggets and the imperfections there and watching someone else embrace that in themselves was just so liberating. I know I say things like this to a lot of your videos, but we don't often get to see behind the curtain, and just assume that the first drafts of other writers are "so much better" than our own. Even with a first draft from another writer exposed, it's easy to want to compare their first draft writing to my own, but that's not the point. The point is that anyone can embrace their own writing and see the good in it, and doing so can help them to discover more of their unbridled creativity, which will give them MORE to edit and refine in the future. Sure, we always have areas to improve, but the more we aren't afraid to let the writing out, the better that writing will become. So it was really fun to see someone demonstrate this, and makes me less likely to shy away from writing for the fear that the first draft is condemned from conception :)
yayyy omg I'm sooo happy to hear this! this is exactly what I'm trying to do!! writing can be soooscary and I think seeing other people's early work is helpful in that it does show that we start somewhere. I really love to look at my first drafts as neutral--they're not trying to be "bad" or good necessarily, and they don't say anything about me as a writer. they just exist to build off and enjoy! thx for watching!
Wow! These excerpts are beautiful! The only time my first drafts have ever been published were for a few flash fiction stories under 1000 words. Everything else definitely needs more work! I love the dialogue in Sunless Ground (especially the beats/callbacks) and the sensory flow of your other excerpts. Amazing! 😍🥰
This was an inspiring video! It's nice to think how the stuff that comes out on the first draft improves with time and practice. Definitely made me think of how I've improved over the years. It is a great moment when a really good line just appears when you're writing your first draft and it feels like something magic happened!
Yessss I love those moments too! Honestly writing is less scary to me when I see other people share their early work 😂 so hoping to pass on my contribution too!
I don't! Personally I've tried this, but editing by hand is kind of a pain to me bc I have big unwieldy handwriting LOL, so any time I've printed a draft to edit it's just been a waste of paper & ink! Usually I just edit directly in the doc.
How are you doing mrs Rachel . Iam Arabic lady subscriber to several British and American TH-cam channels. Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel. We are as foreigners subscribers as overseas students want to increase our cultural level, improve our English as well and literature lovers too . I gathered main information about Canadian literature containing both French and English literature. Famous Canadian authors as Margaret Atwood her novel handmaid tale , Lucy maud as children writer , Kathleen Margaret Pearson as children writer, Farley mow at known as adult writer and his books required reading in Canadian schools. Definition of drafting in writing as part of writing process . Draft of letter, book , speech you can write first version of it . Synonyms outline, plan . Drafting helps students expand upon , clarify, modify their initial plans and ideas , helps them organize their content into meaningful sequence. First draft contains everything you want to say and final draft contains everything you needed to say . Draft of book is manuscript. Published authors needed 10 drafts at least year of real editing. I hope I can a lot from your knowledge. Became intimate friends from now on. Best wishes for you your dearest ones .
OKAY THIS VID IS A TINY BIT LATE!!! BUT I hope you enjoy anyway lol. Had to cut out a really important part of this video about seeing first drafts as less of a "problem" and more of an opportunity to render, SO I will be back with more drafts. Let me know if there's a particular draft you want to see and I'll make it happen.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro/first drafts are beautiful
1:51 - Excerpt 1 (weaving timelines, verbs, punctuation)
7:35 - "You need to destroy your first draft"
9:24 - Excerpt 2 (flow, voice, specificity)
13:47 - Excerpt 3 (insecurity, writing "purpose," expansion)
19:09 - The instinct to edit
19:33 - Why do we "hate" first drafts?
You’re eating the girlies up bc the first excerpt was STUNNING ugh i’m obsessed you’ve inspired me to write
I’m literally gonna cry this is the nicest comment I’ve ever gotten 😭 thanks so much I’m so happy to have inspired & thrilled you liked the excerpts!!!! 💖💖💖
I wonder how different a lot of things would be if we celebrated our first drafts instead of throwing them into the pyre 🥺 I get where the meanness comes from, and the tough love and all that. But it’s odd to me when we’re first taught to slaughter a first draft when it’s greatest gift is simply being. And it takes a long time until you discover for yourself what a first draft is for you in your own writing process, and still figuring that out because every year it feels different 🤣
I am brave today, Rachel. Here's a little first draftish from me.
---
In some ways it’s not a haunting. At least in movies there’d be a plot-a family heirloom rediscovered on the same night you’re meant to die; something lurking through the woods, not a drunkard from a bar; static images above the stereo while you’re driving late at night; hints of voices you never noticed behind a deadbolt opened wide. These are stories: plots. An entire haunting in just the premise. Something malevolent, because of course, makes it worth it for survival. But this has none of it. There’s no story-there’s nothing tying it to something wrong. But there’s this little thing called a conscience stamping, 'Liar' beneath its heel.
Ooh, I love that. Especially the last sentence - I am intrigued!
I'm learning to love drafting, as my biggest hurdle for a long time has been getting started on projects. I tend to line edit as I go, so they're pretty clean drafts, but doing that first pass is often a struggle. But I'm trying to lower the standards I set for myself so that it's not such a daunting task. I really like the bracket method where you summarize what all needs to happen in between bits of prose-- I used to be staunch about writing start-to-finish but as my projects have gotten bigger, I've started to jump around a lot more!
Oh man I literally love this video concept and your excerpts are all amazing, the sensory details in the first excerpt?? *chef's kiss*
We SHOULD celebrate first drafts more!! Sometimes if I revise too many times, that initial emotionality and spontaneity of thought starts to disappear so I've been trying to tread the line between polished and raw.
Yesss omg the first drafts can hold so much power… if I can help it I try to leave them be! & thank you, I’m happy you liked the vid!
I love it when you share your writing!! Especially when you analyze/talk about it like this.
Also, Rachel, my book is getting published! Wanted to thank you for the many times you inspired me and kept me company through the process. (Yay!)
Hahaha when you said the word burgeoning sounded like something Hannibal would say, I was like, hm, yeah. But then I reread "when did he look through the glass of his burgeoning youth and see something faithless reflected back at him?" in Mads Mikkelsen's voice in my head like four times with increasing accuracy and it got funnier every single time. My god you were right.
LMAOOO RIGHT
This is so great and I am really inspired to write now! I get very "in my head" about the first draft instead of just writing but it's so important to remember that it's not something to worry about, because it's the FIRST draft, not the ONLY draft. Also, can I just say the line about his vision becoming a kaleidoscope is SO FIRE ❤❤
Yessss just the first draft not the only one for sure! First drafts aren’t taking stances-they just are, and having that mentality has helped a lot! & thank you hehe I’m curious how I’ll revise it or if it’ll stay that way!
@@rachelwritesbooks also I know this is random but when you upload I get a surge of happiness because you are my favorite writer on this platform and I'm always curious about your work and your updates and I like to write while listening to your videos ☺️☺️☺️
@@KetchupCanvas omg that’s so nice 😭 I’m happy to hear! Thank you!
Seeing your drafts and the nuggets and the imperfections there and watching someone else embrace that in themselves was just so liberating. I know I say things like this to a lot of your videos, but we don't often get to see behind the curtain, and just assume that the first drafts of other writers are "so much better" than our own. Even with a first draft from another writer exposed, it's easy to want to compare their first draft writing to my own, but that's not the point.
The point is that anyone can embrace their own writing and see the good in it, and doing so can help them to discover more of their unbridled creativity, which will give them MORE to edit and refine in the future. Sure, we always have areas to improve, but the more we aren't afraid to let the writing out, the better that writing will become. So it was really fun to see someone demonstrate this, and makes me less likely to shy away from writing for the fear that the first draft is condemned from conception :)
yayyy omg I'm sooo happy to hear this! this is exactly what I'm trying to do!! writing can be soooscary and I think seeing other people's early work is helpful in that it does show that we start somewhere. I really love to look at my first drafts as neutral--they're not trying to be "bad" or good necessarily, and they don't say anything about me as a writer. they just exist to build off and enjoy! thx for watching!
Wow! These excerpts are beautiful! The only time my first drafts have ever been published were for a few flash fiction stories under 1000 words. Everything else definitely needs more work! I love the dialogue in Sunless Ground (especially the beats/callbacks) and the sensory flow of your other excerpts. Amazing! 😍🥰
I REALLY appreciate this. A true gift to the community.
i need more authenticity in my lifeeee ‼️
gotta make another version of this vid asap then!
This was an inspiring video! It's nice to think how the stuff that comes out on the first draft improves with time and practice. Definitely made me think of how I've improved over the years. It is a great moment when a really good line just appears when you're writing your first draft and it feels like something magic happened!
Yessss I love those moments too! Honestly writing is less scary to me when I see other people share their early work 😂 so hoping to pass on my contribution too!
I've been looking for video like this! So helpful, thanks 😊
Yay, I’ll make more too!
The first draft is bascially just have fun then edit then write your second draft
Do you print out every draft when it's time to revise?
I don't! Personally I've tried this, but editing by hand is kind of a pain to me bc I have big unwieldy handwriting LOL, so any time I've printed a draft to edit it's just been a waste of paper & ink! Usually I just edit directly in the doc.
I print mine and edit them later.
omg first 💗
hehe hello!!!
How are you doing mrs Rachel . Iam Arabic lady subscriber to several British and American TH-cam channels. Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel. We are as foreigners subscribers as overseas students want to increase our cultural level, improve our English as well and literature lovers too . I gathered main information about Canadian literature containing both French and English literature. Famous Canadian authors as Margaret Atwood her novel handmaid tale , Lucy maud as children writer , Kathleen Margaret Pearson as children writer, Farley mow at known as adult writer and his books required reading in Canadian schools. Definition of drafting in writing as part of writing process . Draft of letter, book , speech you can write first version of it . Synonyms outline, plan . Drafting helps students expand upon , clarify, modify their initial plans and ideas , helps them organize their content into meaningful sequence. First draft contains everything you want to say and final draft contains everything you needed to say . Draft of book is manuscript. Published authors needed 10 drafts at least year of real editing. I hope I can a lot from your knowledge. Became intimate friends from now on. Best wishes for you your dearest ones .
Posting my draft would make you vomit Rachel.
I would never react to someone else’s writing that way!
I love this! I was thinking about doing this on my channel, but with the first book I ever wrote 🫠 it's very, very rough though
Ahhh I’ll have to check out your vids! I’ll have to share some of my older work too hehe