On Drafting
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig
One of the big mysteries to me when I was starting out as a writer was where the drafting “sweet spot” was. Some writers seemed to have things down to a science, doing specific edits during specific drafts. Some seemed like their drafts were random tweaks during each read-through.
There didn’t seem to be a formula for it, so I stumbled around for a while. I wasn’t even sure what qualified for a draft. Was it when I made a full pass through the document? Was it when I changed a certain percentage of the document?
Now that I’ve been writing for a while, I’ve developed my own process toward drafting. That’s the best way for writers to handle it: find what works best. For me, it’s writing straight through the manuscript, eschewing editing and skipping chapter breaks, most description, and some subplots until the next draft.
Along the way, I’ve seen two troubling areas for writers approaching drafting.
One is the writer who is so relieved to have gotten to the end of their manuscript that they can’t get it submitted fast enough. This is going to be problematic for a variety of reasons. One is that the editing process, if you’re paying for an editor, is probably going to be pretty expensive. At any rate, it’s going to be a lot more expensive than if you’d settled down, read it through, and made corrections. For the querying writer, you’re likely delivering a mess into someone’s inbox at an agency or publisher.
Just as much of a problem is the writer who never stops drafting. The writer who second-guesses every word and who’s done countless drafts. This insecurity or perfectionism can keep writers from submitting their work or from publishing it themselves.
Maybe everything is better with moderation. There’s no hurry to rush something out of the gate. But there’s no need to sit on a manuscript through countless iterations, either.
Has your drafting process changed through the years? What kind of drafter are you?
Drafting: Too Many Drafts, Too Few:
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