How Many Drafts?

[Nicole]

I was thinking about going over my first book again, which would be draft six if I did, and it got me thinkin':

How many drafts of your book have you done before you thought it was "ready"?

For my second book it'll be only 3 drafts once I'm done editing.

[Mark]

Wow, this is a great topic ! Me, personally, I go with 3. I like to hand-write the 1 st draft, as it forces me to go slower and imagine the scenes. The following 2 are typed on the computer w/ editing/revisions. My editor advised me to avoid more than 3, as it tends to cause the original idea of the story to morph into something else.

[Harmony]

I do as few as possible! lol
I type in and edit as I go, I always reread the last chapter I wrote when I sit down to write more.
Then I put it away for a while, and then do an edit.
Then I do a proof read.
For me, the trick is knowing when to stop :3

[Brian]

For me the first draft is getting the idea out in words. I don't worry about the structure or if it's any good. The second draft is all about making it good. Rewriting and refining everything. Fixing plot holes that are created when you come up with new ideas as you continue to write. The third draft for me is mostly about fixing minor issues, formatting, misspellings, typos, etc... Every once in a while I rewrite a sentence. I plan on letting go after that unless my beta readers find something.

[Ann]

I did Fury in 4, but I hope to do my next in three :]

I'm on the fourth draft now getting ready for beta reads, hoping it's going to be my last anyway :p

[G.G.]

@Brian Yep I think that about sums it right. That's how I'm doing it with my sequel.

However, I can't count how many times I re-edited Fate, but it was my first and I've learned a lot while doing it, but always AFTER I've finished an edit. During the course of my last edit, I created a prologue and scratched a lot of stuff while sprinkling other info throughout the book. I find the result much better although with all the edits, the first chapter doesn't flow as well as the rest, but I had to put a stop to the mad editing before I went crazy. (Being already a tad crazy I should say crazier instead. :P )

[Nicole]

50? Holy cow! Thats amazing haha As long as it's the best it needs to be ^^

@Brian and GG Def sums it up haha

@Mark Thanks ^^ And 3 seems to be the magic number :)

@Bisky Here's hoping! Good luck with your beta readers :D so exciting ^^

@Harmony I agree, def gotta know when to stop. A writers work is never done, but at the same time you have to know when to let it go so others can enjoy it :)

[Nicole]

Thanks Jennifer! That's good to know. Definitely something to consider :)

[Kevin]

I have no idea. I wrote out my first book in one go, reorganized events to spread out the action, added in new transitions to make everything flow better (or rather flow again), got feedback from friends, revised it, got more feedback and revised again. I guess I did everything in three-ish drafts, but I made hundreds of small tweaks here and there before giving it the okay.

@Mark, I used to write my first drafts by hand, but I screwed up my wrist a few years ago. Now I can only write for short periods of time, so I've shifted all my drafts back to the computer. I miss doing things by hand though. It kept me from revising my writing before getting through my first drafts.

[Jack]

I take the word "draft" to mean writing through the book/story from beginning to end, which in my case is probably 2 - 3. Now, regarding "revisions" that is another topic and that could be in the double figures!

[Jack]

50 rejections, Jennifer? Sounds like a typical number to me. I needed to rent space at a storage unit to file away all of my paper rejections! LOL.

[Claire]

Just wondering, do you guys keep your rejections or delete them?

[Ann]

My 70 something are in the bowels of my email address. But now I can see why they were rejected and it makes me hopeful for the next time I query ^-^ and brag about my Twitter followers, YOLO.

Jks :p

I heard about one author who used his rejections to plaster his bathroom walls :3

[Molly]

I am at about 60% of my fourth thorough edit now and hopefully it will be my last.

I keep thinking of things to change or add as I go and then I have to go through and change everything that effected.

It's hard to know when it's done, when to stop editing. I figure if there's anything I've missed in four edits I'm just not seeing it and hopefully my beta readers will catch it.

[Ann]

I have to be really strict with myself. I'm such a perfectionist I could pick at the bloody thing for years xP

[Claire]

Molly, I once read a blog post by Nathan Brandsford that says to make a note where you decided to change something and continue from that point as though it was changed. I'm thinking this cuts down on drafts, because you only need to change what happened before you made your note. Never tried it, but makes sense.

[Nicole]

@Claire Keep! I scrapbook all mine along with the queries I had sent out ^^ That way when I do make it I can look back and be like 'look at all these losers that said no. Bet they're sorry now!' :p

@Bisky I would die laughing if I heard you say "yolo" with your accent. lol XD

@Molly It is really hard to stay objective with your own work, I think. That's why having some fresh eyes on it is such a wonderful thing. They can tell you how it translates, and they'll see things you never saw. It's very helpful.

[Brian]

I'm the same way Bisky. If I didn't force myself to stop then I would write one book that I never finish editing and never publish. After a while, you have to let go. Once this first one is done, I think the second book will be much easier to write. I have learned so much!

[Gabe]

For me it is as many as it takes. I lost count of specifically how many, but I am guessing it somewhere around 20. I learned a lot over the seven years that took so I think the next one will take less. We'll see, though.

[Deb]

Jennifer wrote: "And just to let you know, I got at least 50 rejections (from agents). I tried so hard to secure one but with 0 luck. (B/c I'm a first time author??) Every agent said-great job, but not for me. I ev..."

Your run down of going with a small publisher sounds exactly how I felt, too... EVERYONE has to promote themselves these days, and, you're right, the big publishers take YEARS to get a book out, where a small publisher can do it in months.

Hands on is the way to go. Mine's great for that, too.


As for my own drafts... well, for my debut I only really finished one entire MS... The rest was edited as I went... I would get to a point and just think "I wonder how much this would change if I did this instead?" My opening 6-8 chapters went through various iterations to work out how best to set the whole novel up. I found as I went forward there were fewer and fewer narrative choices to make, so big edits didn't have to happen so much. So, the final chapters just needed a tidy-up, really.

For my second, I've tried to keep the forward pace going more. The opening doesn't have as many options as the first book did, because this one is a follow-on from the last! Still, there are some events that COULD happen in various orders and I have had to play with those to get a feel for which arrangement I prefer. I feel I'm getting close now. I still haven't typed or written "THE END" yet, though I have got close!
At the moment, I am running through a detailed synopsis to try to avoid too much re-writing from here on in...
Then, hopefully, it'll just be a couple of run throughs to smooth things out and then to edit...
... and then beta readers...

@Brian and Bisky -- Exactly right! You HAVE to let them go eventually. Is my first novel the perfect book? Hell no! But I knew I had to let it go. I've got an idea of the standard I'm aiming for with this one, so I think I'll know when to set it free... Luckily I have my publisher ready to take a look at it when the time is right this time around!

[Heidi]

My first series...well I lost count. The next I could probably say the same. Both I started writing when I was young and they have evolved as I have. Destiny, the second, still isn't done.

Forever Lost: that is from a free write and I'm on my third. Once I get these changes in we'll see if it all works out. Then it will be just making sure I catch all the mistakes. (Honestly though, is that even possible? *sigh*)

[Gabe]

@Deb your process sounds very efficient! I am getting better about being more disciplined. It took me a while to learn.

I started my first as a college dropout and am finishing it as a grad student. With so many changes going on in my life, I had to keep changing it to keep up with me. Really, I should have written like three books, but the book that I am releasing is definitely the best version of it, so I would say it was worth it.

[Ann]

I always think you can go small now and get bigger later :3

[J. David]

The number seems to increase all the time. Lately I've been doing 4, but I still found errors in TIME SPENT when glancing over it recently (after publication). This has the effect of making me go into a fit of rage, so who knows how many drafts I'll go through next time?? lol

[Carl]

Whatever it takes.

[Nicole]

Haha @Carl, good answer. Right to the point.

[Ross]

I revise a couple of pars or pages over and over as I go, which means it can take a couple of years to write a novel. But in two cases it has meant that I have been able to sell that first draft (although in effect maybe it wasn't a first draft).In other cases, lazily not writing a second and third draft has cost me a sale. I know of at least two books I've written which possibly would have sold if the bumps had been ironed out first. I expect we all know that feeling at the end of a long project when all you want to do is see the back of it?

[Carl]

I taught college comp for a few years and the experience turned me into a writing pragmatist.