There are so many questions here about correct this and correct that - from the length of chapters to - just about anything else - that I am now wondering...
What is the "fixation" with getting everything "just so"?
This applies especially at the draft level.
How many of us would write a CV/Resume and expect to get it 100% first time?
Also - why would there be editors, mentors and people to suggest revision if we always got everything exactly as it should be first time - or even 7th time?
Many years ago I did teacher training - fortunately it put me off teaching. One reason that it put me off is that I discovered the principle of "learning to fail" - the idea that there are social parameters that tell us appropriate levels at which to not progress successfully inorder to remain (happily) within our social group.
There is it seems social pressure to "not be stupid" and to "not fail" - but there are also social pressures that in Old language" would be expressed as "do not get above your station" - or in modern terms "don't ge too clever / don't be a geek".
I am certain that these pressures apply to us when we write. I am also certain that they influence or deep concerns about "getting it right" - and - "getting it right first time".
I ask though - why should we put these pressures on ourselves?
Let's get something written - and then sort it out to an improved version... And that doesn't have to be "right" either...
David
"Wasn't writing a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination?"
Ian McEwan (Atonement)
Keep on writing! :)
The W&A Team
There are any number of books that have sold thousands of copies that are NOT considered good and vice versa. Its all about judgement and there is a fine line between pushing oneself to do one's best and let others 'read your soul' or dabble about in writing that is purely for one's own pleasure
I assure you, David, I did not set out to get it right first time. When I started my book it was purely for my own pleasure and decided I would just 'get the book down' and then sort out all the problems afterwards. The two people who read it at that stage were absolute angels. They had to put up with very little punctuation, formatting, chapters the size of full length novels and a seemingly endless book. (It was a thousand pages back then. Bless them!)
But their comments were invaluable and six years (and five books) on I have a first novel I am proud of. Yes, it took years to get there. No, the first draft wasn't even close. But it was like an apprenticeship. I have gone from novice to novelist the hard way and I wouldn't change it at all.