First Draft Update (and Tolkien)
Yesterday, despite my resolve not to do any editing yet, I printed out my first draft of Chapters 1 and 2. I sat down with my post-it notes and got to work. See, some parts of the story had changed that affected the location, back story and characters. I could have just plowed forward without changing what was already written, but I decided to go ahead and revise it. I did that and managed to get started on Chapter 3 as well.
It made me think about first drafts, and the different methods of approaching them. Sometimes, I write something that is just not any good. I’m torn between moving forward with the story and working through it until I can turn the scene into something I can at least accept. There are, of course, opposing views of this. Some say to write that first draft and don’t worry if it is terrible. Others say to take your time so that when you are finished, you don’t have to spend endless hours cutting and rewriting. Getting the story down versus having a story almost perfect the first time around.
So, I decided to take a look at my hero’s first drafts. I have a book called The Return of the Shadow by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book includes drafts and the earliest manuscripts of what would later become The Fellowship of the Ring. It is interesting to look at these drafts because there are substantial differences in them and what was eventually published. For example, Bree was home to hobbits, not humans. And Strider? He was originally a hobbit named Trotter!
Here’s a passage from the first draft:
Suddenly Bingo noticed that a queer-looking, brown-faced hobbit, sitting in the shadows behind the others, was also listening intently. He had an enormous mug (more like a jug) in front of him, and was smoking a broken-stemmed pipe right under his rather long nose. He was dressed in dark rough brown cloth, and had a hood on, in spite of the warmth, - and very remarkably, he had wooden shoes! Bingo could see them sticking out under the table in front of him.
Now, here’s the passage in final published form:
Suddenly Frodo noticed that a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretched out in front of him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.
Now, looking at this, Tolkien did quite a bit of editing at some point. There is the obvious of name changes for both Frodo and Strider, but also of turning Strider from a hobbit into a man. What sticks out to me the most is A) The removal of the weird wooden shoe thing and B) his wording when describing Strider makes him appear more menacing than before. Overall, he doesn’t change much about Strider’s appearance, but it’s the way he describes it, his phrasing, that makes him seem more menacing and mysterious than before.
Before:
He was dressed in dark rough brown cloth, and had a hood on, in spite of the warmth, - and very remarkably, he had wooden shoes!
After:
A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.
When I keep reading through the drafts book, I see that he has gone on for awhile in the hobbit Trotter direction. Now, this is purely speculation, but it appears that Tolkien didn’t get stuck in one spot trying to make a document perfect in the first sitting.
Quite often, some sentences in my first draft come out with less description and flow than I would like. It could get cumbersome trying to make each sentence perfect on the first go. Some scenes don’t seem right, and I’m not sure if certain backstory should be placed in certain scenes. It isn’t until I have the big picture that I can get some of these questions answered. I know this, and I’m a big believer in getting the first draft down before doing any major edits or trying to make things perfect. I know staying stuck for endless days on one chapter will never finish a book.
I know all of these things. It just makes me feel better to see that my favorite author didn’t get it right the first time either.
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Comments
How interesting! What a great book that would be to have.
How far are you along? I always thought waiting until the end of the book worked best for me, but this time I whipped out a pen to the first Chapter, just to see what had changed.
Veryyyy interesting process, this book writing. Veryyyyy interesting.
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