Why You Should Never Call a Draft Final

You’ve done it! You’ve written an entire novel and hit THE END. You have even revised it a few times. The new file name?

FINAL DRAFT

There’s something inherently satisfying about telling yourself this is the final draft.

…But it isn’t.

Trust me. 

You will have more edits down the road. No matter if you traditionally publish or self-publish, you will make additional edits. That’s why you should avoid naming any draft “final.” It will only lead to confusion and frustration down the road. I mean, no one wants their book’s folder to look like this: 

FINAL.doc, FINALFINAL.doc, ThisIsTheFINAL.doc, FINALLYFINAL.doc, PickThisOne.doc

What a headache. 

Instead, try to name your drafts with specific reminders. Is this the version you sent to beta readers? Your agent? Include that information and the date. Sure, you can always check the date in the info tab, but it’s much easier to locate items if the information is readily available. File names should look like this: FirstDraft_(date) or Query2_(date). 

When I send my work to my critique partners, it looks like this: MBSDraft2KC_9.23.

Translated? Minutes Before Sunset, second draft, to Kansas City critique partners in September 2023.

File names are essential for keeping track of your work. It’s also easy to start out strong, and then unravel overtime, leaving your computer full of clunky, confusing documents. If you’re finding yourself lost in the drafting stage, try writing software, like Scrivener. It allows Snapshots, which keeps all your various versions in one place and automatically dates them. You can give them unique names, too! You can even compare the two documents through color-coding.

Finally—(haha)—my last tip is also my favorite: Create folders when there’s a clear reason to do so. For instance, queries should be in one folder; pages in another. Trust me, you’ll have various versions of every document you create. It’s much easier to find the synopsis you want if all of your various versions (with clear names!) are in one place rather than having query/synopsis/pages tagging along together. 

How do you stay organized? 

Let me know in the comments below!

~SAT