Thrust for the first draft

[Nik]

Some famous authors recommend to neglect re-writes, corrections, orthography and just aim initially at reaching the raw first draft. Polishing, changes, finetuning and everything shall come afterwards.
Others spend a lot of time slowly perfecting each scene before moving any further with their writing.
What works for you?

[J.J.]

My drafts don't usually go through major rewrites, but they do require attention...the first pass is by no means perfect or clean. But I tend to reach points in just about everything I write where I absolutely hate what I'm writing and put down the words to get through a tough spot, planning to clean it up in the editing when I come back with a clearer head...then when I read through it during the first pass, I'm surprised at how much better those pieces were than I thought they were when I wrote them.

Then I get those chapters/pieces I'm completely enthralled with when I first write them...the words flow and I pump them out in record numbers. And when I come back through the first editing pass, they don't seem quite as good as I thought...

[Ian]

As a general rule, I rewrite several times before the first ten chapters are set as the first draft. This is mainly to reorganise, and make sure the various threads have reasonably balanced starts, and I usually make only minor changes to text that is written, and that is simply because if I see something wrong, I think it is better to fix it than leave it. The purpose of that is to establish the overall structure. Once satisfied that is sound, I go through to the end, then think about polishing.

[Leonie]

I usually write the whole thing, unless I have an amazing epiphany and then I put it away for a month or so. Then I get it out, and begin the editing - that part of the edit is usually about story continuity, obvious issues with sentences/paragraphs/characters etc, or plot holes.

Then it gets put away again. The next time I work on it, is to tighten up the writing, fix anything I missed the previous time, and begin to polish it. It gets put away again.

The final time is usually about polishing, tweaking, and sending it out to friends/relatives/anyone who'll read it and give me their opinion.