Re picking up first draft

[LuciferRising]

Started my first draft August last year. Finished this summer and started a structural edit. Work went crazy, I ended up in a more senior role and focused on that over the autumn.

I want to pick up my first draft again this holiday and had a read of a few paragraphs here and there today. It's dreadful. Even the first half which I had managed to start editing.

Where to start? Re read and make notes? Work through notes I already have? Ditch it?

It's my first book. I do have another few chapters to add onto the end too.

Any writers?

So you've got the structure - are you happy with that? If so, can you drill down into what exactly it is you're finding awful?

I haven't finished the structural edit yet. Half way through. I believe the actual writing is weak too. Maybe the characters are. I'm wondering whether to try and finish this first macro edit by the end of year, without reading, the reread in the new year.

If you're happy with the actual plot then use the structural edit to draft it all again, like writing it a second time and cutting and pasting in the bits you do like. There are lots of published authors who do it this way!