First Draft - the two approaches

I normally belong to the camp that says when you have an idea, the inspiration to write, and the time, you should start your first draft and keep going until the whole thing is finished. Don't look back and revise, don't worry about spelling or comma splices, and don't get too bogged down trying to plan the whole thing out before you get going. Often the characters will take you places you didn't think you'd ever go. This is one of the most magical things about writing.

But there's another camp. This camp says that once you write a chapter or a scene, you should stop and revise it, either that moment or the next morning, before continuing with your story. I've even heard of writers who write a sentence and then spend hours revising that sentence until they think they've gotten it right.

Last year, I was forced to set up my tent in the enemy camp. I had taken an Advanced Creative Writing class, where over the course of a semester, I would attempt to write a portion of a novel. This course taught me infinitely more than I can describe here, but before I got to all the benefits, I had to show that my writing was improving through revision. That meant that I couldn't write my novel all the way to the end in the 4 months I had class. I had to write chapter 1, revise chapter 1, revise chapter 1 again, write chapter 2, revise chapter 2, revisit chapter 1, and so on. This process frustrated me until I was blocked - until I didn't know if I wanted to finish my novel at all. My professor noticed this, and at the end of the semester he told me to go back to my preferred camp. Over the course of the summer, I did. However, this experience in enemy territory proved very beneficial. I recently went back to that manuscript and read it through. I noticed how fleshed out the first (heavily revised) chapters were, compared to the ones I had zipped through after the class. Being forced to revise before the entire draft was finished helped me to realize my character in that particular moment, which in turn helped me to discover her true personality as a whole.

So, if you find yourself stuck in your draft - perhaps you don't know what your protagonist desires, or if your idea is original enough, or you're not familiar with all the paraphernalia your protagonist keeps in his glove compartment - switch camps for a while and see what happens. Sometimes (like when your grade is on the line) being forced to look back helps you to move forward.

Happy Writing!