After the first draft

lambswool

Commonly people are advised to stay away from a first draft for at least 6 weeks, which seems like good advice.

What do you guys write while waiting? Pursue an entirely different work? The temptation for me is to expand upon minor characters from the draft, without explicit reference from the draft but perhaps in the hope I would end up writing something that could be slotted in to the work in progress, which seems like the wrong idea

km85264

I think every writer needs to find what works best for them. The almost universal advice is to complete the first draft without ever looking back; personally, I edit as I go along. Most first drafts are terrible, so if you’ve done yours without any editing then I’d say roll the sleeves up and get straight into fixing it. Look at the big things first: how does the pace run across the story? Are the characters credible? Is there a real change in the protagonist between start and finish? If you need to make big changes, and most people do, now is the time to start the heavy spade work. You can do the fine tuning later, and yes, leaving your draft for a couple of months at some point is a very good idea, but I don’t see there’s a huge benefit in it while it’s still very much a work in progress.
Kieran

Gale

Agree with Kieran, and would add that its a very cool thing to be able to write for sustained periods consistently, and continue to enjoy it - so do it what ever way you enjoy it