I keep seeing writers talking about how many drafts they write, but I've never seen the need to. I plan ahead, decide what works best for the story, write what I want to write, what I like, and then afterwards I go back and reread it a few times and make minor edits to fix awkward wording, repetitive phrasing, minor inconsistencies, etc. I've never finished a chapter or something and then saw the need to completely nuke it and start over - the very concept of wasting time toiling over the same pages like that seems outright wild to me. I feel very alone on this issue, so I Googled the title question and fortunately found someone else like me, and they say it better than I could: I agree with this 100%. But, since it seems to be just me and this one other person, I'm afraid to ask... am I doing it entirely wrong? Is it true that the first draft is always shit, no exceptions? Does that mean that if I don't see the need to nuke it and start from scratch at least once or twice, that I'm blind to how shit it really is and should rewrite it all anyway? I'm confused and worried that I'm doing everything wrong.
How many other people have seen your stories? I ask because it's all too easy to look at your own work and not see the flaws. You know exactly what you meant to write, and when you read it, that's how you see it, but will it really come across effectively to somebody else? That's the part that makes writing difficult. There's so much to learn, how to use POV well, how to create good characters that feel 3 dimensional, to move the conflict forward without going off the rails, and how to wrap it all up by the end in a satisfying way that doesn't feel forced or ridiculous or too obvious. Becoming a good artist of any kind requires a lot of study, practice and work, because first you have to start to see through your self-satisfied illusions that you're already excellent at it. The mind has ways of tricking you into believing it. The reality starts to become apparent when you show your work to other people and they don't see it the way you do, and at that point you either decide they're all deluded fools and you're a misunderstood genius, or you decide to get to work at learning how to write effectively.
I dont think you are the only one. It depebds on the person and thier preferences. I'm more of a pansier then a plotter. Even if i plot out an outline the story never goes the way i want it too. The first draft is usaully a mess and find that I change things half way through and the stort goes in another direction then i originally had planned. I'm getting those ideas on paper or on the screen the best way I know how. Then i write a second draft, make revisions, fix those inconsistencies and holes I left since im such a horrible planner. That is as far as i go in writing drafts. I put it away for a while, and pull it out to reread and make those final edits and send it to a few beta readers if it ever makes it that far. I do think most people make multiple drafts as a way to back up what they have in case something doesn't work out or somehow the draft is deleted. That way dont have to write those words all over again. I used to do that but found it took up to much space and id lose track of which draft I was currently working on. But i still keep a folder for deleted scenes and anything im not sure where or if it'll go into the final draft. It all depends on the writer and thier level of writing. I took a creative writing class last semester and the professor had this process on writing multiple drafts and what to focus on for each draft. I wrote my story, reread it, made my edits and submitted it. I didnt have that time to worry about rewriting it 3-4 times. If you're happy with your writing on that first draft that's awesome. If not. Dont give up on it. You'll get there in time.
After completing the first draft, I didn't start again from scratch either. Having said that, I've changed so much in my novel then the current version bears little resemblance to the first one. As well as amending the wording to make it read more fluently, and added details to overcome ambiguity. I removed entire sections that I deemed unnecessary and rearranged the passages to create a more sensible order of events. (I keep the deleted scenes in a separate file which is now large enough to be a novel.) Minimize the arbitrary details the reader needs to keep track of is something to bear in mind. To do this, I've removed and combined characters. I've even changed the main plot, as the original one just wasn't working. Then there were all the continuity errors to deal with. I can't say I'm on the 4th or 5th draft because, for me, editing is a continuous process.
There is not one way of doing things . Some writers will spend a lot of time planning , making maps, character descriptions and even storyboards before writing the book in a single draft . I know some writers that will go back every 500 word or so to edit and rewrite , but will only write a single draft . It was said P K Dick would write a book in a single sitting . Personally , rewriting is part of the stories creation . It is also been said that publishers reject 98% of submissions.
i never actually write more than one draft... i just edit the heck out of it i think people who say that 'oh well hemingway rewrote his drafts from scratch... forget that he had no choice, he was using a typewriter which didn't save his work.... I'd bet that if he'd been writing in word or scrivener or whatever he wouldn't have done anywhere near as much retyping
That's more like my style, there. Before I even wrote the first word, I had already fleshed out most of the fictional country the story takes place in, developed the central characters (at least those who are in it at the start), and had already outlined the whole first chapter. Then once I finished the first chapter, I re-read it a few times and made some edits. Then I start over this process for the next chapter: think of what characters it will involve, get my ducks in a row character-wise and setting-wise, then outline the plot, then write it, re-read it a few times and edit, and so on. So, I don't do all the prep work in one go, but I make sure to have the prep work done before I actually get to that part in the story, so that when I'm actually writing, I always know what comes next. I've been less careful in the past, and have attempted to dive right into a story without prepping everything first, and it didn't work so well for me. This is my third major attempt at writing anything longer than a short story, and I have to say that at least so far, it seems to be working better for me with how I'm doing it this time.
my "drafts" are more so to have copies of the progression of my story. For example, my Ugly Draft was my first draft. the one that i wrote all the way through without editing. then i have my "Beta Draft" and all that is was a copy of my Ugly Draft that I sent out to beta readers. Beta readers left comments on it, and I saved that draft, made ANOTHER copy, and started editing/addressing the feedback from my Beta Draft called Draft 2. That copy becomes my "Final Draft" and from that point on, I tweak it here and there but do not make any extensive changes. So for me: Ugly Draft (for me) Beta Draft (for readers) Draft 2 (for editing/changes) Final Draft (tweaking for SPAG)
Planning and prep is a good idea, it works really well for some people. But to be able to do it to a really high standard—so your story comes out fully readable on the first pass—means you have to really have a lot of experience and be excellent at it. Basically you're trying to anticipate the problems and work them out before you write. I've tried it, and it does have some advantages for me, but it didn't solve all or even many of my problems and I think it added some new ones. It also sounds like the editing you're talking about is mostly very minor—SPaG and line edit stuff, which usually comes at the end. Before that I usually like to do a structural edit (several passes at it usually). Maybe it would work better if I present things in a different order? Or I might decide a couple of characters need better motivations or goals, or I see something I never noticed before, a potential that I think is worth developing that makes the story into something far better than my original idea. I think what I'm trying to say (and I had to write all that before I realized it) is that often your ideas evolve as you go, and by the time you're finishing the story (1st draft) it might grow into a very different story (2nd draft). But then maybe what we're talking about isn't all that different really. Maybe you just object to the idea of completely new 'drafts', as if it means re-writing everything. Maybe what you call editing is like what I mean by draft. I certainly don't re-write everything for a new draft. It's more a matter of making a copy of my first pass, so I have it to compare with in case my edits screw things up (it happens and often you don't notice it at the time) and changing parts of it, maybe moving paragraphs or chapters around. Shuffling the deck and trying a few different approaches to things that weren't working all that well, or that I think I can improve. I really see editing and drafting as 2 extremes along a spectrum. Hard to draw a distinct line between them.
I understand what you're saying here and generally agree, but honestly, I think I do a lot of this stuff mentally before I even start writing down ideas. Once I hatch an idea for a story, I'll spend hours just pacing around thinking of things in my head and working them out before I even take notes on any of it. Then I write down some notes and think about it some more for hours on end, for days or weeks before I really get into fitting the puzzle pieces together. For reference of my timeframe, I wrote the first chapter of my current WIP in about 12 hours on Christmas Eve, then spent 3 or 4 days doing line edits and SPAG, before beginning the chapter 2 outline. But before that? This story idea dates back to... August or September, somewhere around there. So I've been kicking it around a while and ruminating over it before I ever got serious about it (and it actually has varied quite a bit since its original inception; my story will have some dark turns and themes, whereas it was conceived as a fairly light adventure story). As for SPAG and line edits usually being at the end, the problem I foresee personally (knowing myself) is that by the time I actually get to the end of my story, I will have re-read what I've written before dozens of times, and it would be too familiar to me by that point to notice minor SPAG mistakes, subtle inconsistencies, and the like; if I've got a lot to read through and I already know what it says, I would likely just read over such mistakes. These are good points, so maybe I should just continue with what I'm doing since it's working for now, change my approach if it starts to not work, and not worry so much about what people consider to be "drafts".
I think that's an excellent idea! No but honestly, I do think it's usually best to not worry about such things and just write instead.
I never completely rewrite a draft, I just edit what I have, but I had a plan going in and I execute that plan well. If I realize I need to make a change earlier in the book, I take notes so that on my next pass, I can correct whatever needs correcting. It doesn't matter how you get to the finish line, only that you do.
Yep, this is close to my process: First Draft - only includes edits made during the writing process Second Draft - one or two full pass-throughs to clean up things better spotted after I'm "done" writing. This gets sent to Betas. Third Draft - incorporate Beta feedback and submit to agent/publisher, or a pro editor if self-publishing Fourth Draft - incorporate feedback from editor (whether hired by a publisher or by me if not trad) For my books that were traditionally published, there would sometimes additional drafts: Fifth Draft - I would send my 4th draft back to the assigned editor, then she would respond with a 2nd round of edits. The fifth draft was incorporating those edits Sixth Draft - I would get one last set of edits from a different editor that was pure proofreading SPAG edit in case the first editor missed something. The sixth and final draft was making those corrections, and what was returned was essentially how the book was printed and sold. Since I have only ever self-published books that originally went through the traditional process, it remains to be seen if I'll need drafts five and six with any new books. I'm a much more experienced and I believe better writer now, and of course footing the bill myself might mean self-publishing right after draft four and hoping for the best. I'm not nearly far enough into the writing process of subsequent books to even guess at this point.
I expect i'll have more drafts. lol, I'm only at step 3 I have 2 people who want to read it once those edits are done. i may have to do minor edits after they read it and then another after I start submitting for publication
because we don't have to retype everything any more ? As I said I never redraft - i edit thoroughly including rewriting sections that need major change, but Ive never written the whole thing from scratch more than once
That's pretty much what I do. I write, I go through and do a complete read through and editing pass, then it goes to betas. I will incorporate feedback into my third pass and then it goes to my final readers, which are a couple of professional writers, my wife, who is also an author, my editor/agent and what I get back from that goes into a final draft. Unless I find something seriously wrong along the way, that's usually where it ends.
I haven't done that since I was using a manual typewriter decades ago. I just consider a draft and an edit to be effectively the same thing. There's no reason to completely re-write unless your first draft is a complete cluster-bleep.
Like Cephus I edit the manuscript rather than redraft. At a certain point when it changes a fair bit I re-number so I don't lose the old version, which I've gone back to several times as changes do not always work. It also leaves a trail of progress. Most screenplays sit on around 4 to 10, while the most is 221 for one of my novels.
There's one screenwriter, I forget who atm, that writes the first draft, reads it and then throws it out, then re-writes the script from memory. He figures the best stuff will stick in the mind.
Well if you redraft, you could have a better story (at least that's what I do) explaining this is a bit hard though for those of you who don't multiple draft stories.
I don't believe that's the case - seems to me that it would be entirely pointless to type everything out again - the whole point of word processors being that you don't have to.... How will typing the same words twice make them better ? And if you are typing different words, why not just edit the document you already have
I love this! Was always my approach to songwriting but I must have lost an awful lot of good stuff over the years by being lazy and not recording ideas. Obviously writing on a word processor is different, I mean does anyone literally start from scratch on something? If it's that bad it's probably one for the bin full stop. Too many ideas not enough time.
