I try not to cringe too much when I think back over my storyline for Emma. There are parts where I already know that changes absolutely must be made and I know what changes to make. And then there are other parts where I know that the story needs to be cleaned up or possibly rearranged. Scenes I know I’ll go back and add in.
My first drafts are always messy. I try to plot, but the best I can do is a one page synopsis telling me the most important plot points that have to happen at some point. The details and secondary storylines are filled in while writing.
My first draft of the first book for the fantasy trilogy I wrote was a disaster. It had to go through a lot of revisions. I always start out knowing the basic storyline and what has to happen, but I’m not entirely sure how I’ll get there. I need to be in the story to see how things should go, but I don’t always choose the best path at first and I’ll figure this out in the first draft. So in the second draft, I have to go back and connect the dots the way the lines should be drawn.
So I try not to worry too much about how Emma looks right now. I’m still about 10,000 words from the end and I know already that it needs a lot of care to clean up. And I know that I’ll get it that way in the revision. I’m not afraid of red ink.