How can I make my 'first draft' good enough to be published?

Question

One of my bugbears about writing is the editing process. I'd much rather get it right first time, rather than chop this and change that afterwards.Other industries would not tolerate the rather curious approach writers have to the craft. Imagine a car manufacturer saying to their workers 'oh, just build the car - we'll fix it up when you've finished.' No - there are rules, systems and procedures in place that ensure that when the car reaches the end of the conveyer belt, it is ready to be delivered to the customer.But don't get hung up on the example (every metaphor breaks down somewhere). I'm asking here for positive steps we can take to make it more likely that our 'first drafts' are good enough to be published.**Edit**:Just to be clear - I'm not trying to change the amount of work, or the reduce time it takes, I'm merely asking for ways to avoid excessive editing (something I *don't* enjoy) by doing other things such as (thanks to Amadeus for his suggestions) 'planning, detailed outlining and world-building and character building' (things I *do* enjoy).

Answer 1

The short answer is I wouldn't settle for a first draft. I know its not an answer I like either but trust me I went through something like ten rounds of editing (ugh) on my first book and it was painful but worth it.

What I can do is give you some tips and resources I use to hopefully do less editing. As you mentioned, planning is so important but even so, we all have our weaknesses. For me I love action, dialogue, and characters but always forget about adding a setting. That minor detail.

I use grammarly as I write. I use the free version and find that it works great to catch a lot of typos and fix grammar/punctuation. It has a free plugin for Google Docs and MS Word which means you can use it for either writing location and get the benefits of it. https://app.grammarly.com/

Once you've drafted you'll want to give it a rest then a read through. After the read through where you can take notes or leave yourself comments, change the font type. This will help you catch typos and misspellings since the font is different and your eyes aren't used to looking at it. Go through and make all the changes you think it needs. Asking yourself specific questions about character motivations and goals as well as the purpose of a scene can help you clean up your draft in the first go through.

Then send it to some beta readers (especially if you aren't sure your weak areas) and get their feedback. Make edits based on that feedback (in a different font).

Then do a listen through using a screen reader software. It will help you catch those typos that nothing else caught.

I know this isn't the answer you hoped for but trust me, you don't want to do a one and done. If you are spending all that time plotting, planning, and writing, you want what you put out to be the best it can be :)

Part of it is narrowing down and accomplishing as much as you can with each edit. I think I suggested three rounds of edits and one round of beta readers. That's way faster than the ten edits I did plus beta readers.

Even one round of edits is better than none. :)