That being said, you aren't exaggerating at all, and I'm also kind of frustrated at how "first draft" has been reduced to a slur, and how much editing/editorialising your own stories is valorised. It does a disservice to the kind of writing that ages better the less it's edited, because with repeated reading you can trace out the bones of the feeling jutting out from under the prose. (Gone are the days when we'd put "unbetaed/written in a daze/this exploded out of my chest, behold the gory aftermath" as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on something that Wanted Out, I guess.)
If I may ask, what sort of writing do you think is better with less editing? I'm asking because I don't often edit/revise for very short flash pieces, but I'm also at a point in my writing (whether because of my personal preferences shifting, or just because I've moved away from writing very short prompt fics or PWP smut and more towards longer stories or ones with more specific thematic elements in mind) where I genuinely don't enjoy my first drafts. I can enjoy elements of the first drafts—the ones that capture the feeling or joy or whatever I initially had in mind—and don't necessarily think it's all bad, but I rarely consider them worth posting.
And 'worth posting' is more about my own feelings to the work rather than whether or not I think someone else would enjoy it. I only post if I think I will still enjoy the work, seeing it later on AO3, rather than trying to play mental games on how many kudos or comments it might receive. But I fully admit that I'm also someone who has somewhat dodgy relationship with checking stats on AO3, so I disable kudos notifications as an effort to nip that in the bud.
(I also feel you on the outlining. That's where the shitty, scrambly, messy part happens -- first draft is where we either see if the thing comes to life or if I've set the bones down wrong. If I hate the thing after the first draft, that's not a sign that the draft is shitty, that's a sign that the bones of it are.)
BUT ALSO THIS THIS THIS. I try to extensively outline so I can at least get a functional first draft, but!!! The first draft is, by its nature, the first 'complete' (finished) version of the fic and going to be the weakest! That's where the flaws are the most staggering, and even if it's not a 'shitty fic' per se, it's still going to lack the improvements, edits, and revisions that go into the second draft! And if the bones are wrong then by golly I need to re-outline the whole thing, but that doesn't mean that my first draft wasn't, in fact, a first draft.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-07-02 03:44 pm (UTC)If I may ask, what sort of writing do you think is better with less editing? I'm asking because I don't often edit/revise for very short flash pieces, but I'm also at a point in my writing (whether because of my personal preferences shifting, or just because I've moved away from writing very short prompt fics or PWP smut and more towards longer stories or ones with more specific thematic elements in mind) where I genuinely don't enjoy my first drafts. I can enjoy elements of the first drafts—the ones that capture the feeling or joy or whatever I initially had in mind—and don't necessarily think it's all bad, but I rarely consider them worth posting.
And 'worth posting' is more about my own feelings to the work rather than whether or not I think someone else would enjoy it. I only post if I think I will still enjoy the work, seeing it later on AO3, rather than trying to play mental games on how many kudos or comments it might receive. But I fully admit that I'm also someone who has somewhat dodgy relationship with checking stats on AO3, so I disable kudos notifications as an effort to nip that in the bud.
BUT ALSO THIS THIS THIS. I try to extensively outline so I can at least get a functional first draft, but!!! The first draft is, by its nature, the first 'complete' (finished) version of the fic and going to be the weakest! That's where the flaws are the most staggering, and even if it's not a 'shitty fic' per se, it's still going to lack the improvements, edits, and revisions that go into the second draft! And if the bones are wrong then by golly I need to re-outline the whole thing, but that doesn't mean that my first draft wasn't, in fact, a first draft.