Writing Blog Number 2

20240502 Drafts

Drafts

This is possibly going to be one of the more contentious things I write here. Every single writing course I have done – including university – has stated the following: “You must do at least three drafts of any novel before it is ready.”

I am here to tell you – the number of drafts you do is up to you.

For 90% of my long works – and this includes all that have been accepted by traditional publishers – I do one complete draft, and then I do an edit, and rewrite usually around half. But I very rarely do complete rewrites.

I will wait for the booing to stop from the literary teachers.

That does not mean I don’t edit. No. Editing is vital; I use external editors. And then getting beta readers and doing what they suggest adds an extra layer of making sure. Thanks to beta readers, I have rewritten passages and chapters. But I have hardly rewritten from scratch.

Truth be told, I am more likely to rewrite short stories; I have sold more than 90 and I reckon 10 were complete rewrites from an original. And my poetry I occasionally rewrite, but not that often, as that spurt of emotion that sparks it is often gone when I come back.

This is my process when it comes to writing novels and novellae. I complete the first draft. Then I do a functional edit – misspelled words, grammar, punctuation, story inconsistencies, etc. Then I put it away for 3 to 6 months. In that time I will normally have written a dozen or more short stories and poems, a heap of columns, and will have definitely started a new long work, if not finished a new one. Then I read it with fresh eyes. I tend to make lots of changes at this point, but these are edits, clarifications, nothing to do with story or plot. Sometimes it’s a lot of changes, sometimes it’s relatively few. Then it goes to my editor. Whatever she suggests, I do. Finally, I send it to a beta reader or three, then fix whatever they find, Finally, I start the laborious task of trying to sell it if I think it fits into the current market.

With a short story, I leave it a week, read it, edit it. I rarely use a beta reader; I might use my editor. Then start looking for anthologies/magazines to publish it. With a poem, I wait a week, read it out loud (always out loud with poetry), maybe makes changes, then let it sit until I am ready to sell it, then I do a final read-through and edit.

That is me.

My old editor used to write a draft which would tend to take her a couple of years, and then she would rewrite the entire thing. Up to 90 percent I reckon was changed. Only then would it hit beta reader/editor stage. One of my state’s best-selling authors insists she does four complete drafts of each story. She reckons the first is usually a short story in length. Then it becomes a novella. Then it becomes a novel. Then she cuts, she says, as much as 10 percent of the word count in the final draft.

Like everything else when it comes to writing processes:
         It is personal to the writer.

For beginner writers, it might be a good idea to rewrite your first attempt at a novel. But maybe not. I certainly rewrote my first three novels, but I was also in my mid-teenaged years when I wrote them, and the rewrites were vital to making them readable.

It is up to you. But if you have readers who think there are glaring errors that editing is not fixing, then rewrites might be necessary.

So, while I have said that it is up to you, do not think what you have written is perfect first time. I do not know anyone who has written something first time that is absolutely flawless. Edits are always needed. At the moment, I have a novel going through beta reading here on WdC. While it has been edited, the amount of things readers are finding, the amount I will need to correct and re-write in some form, is large. And that’s fine. It is what beta readers are for, and is what it takes to be a successful writer.

Don’t be afraid to rewrite, either. It works for the majority of authors. The vast majority of authors. There are huge advantages in rewriting, especially if you use an alpha reader and they are really lost.

But… you are the artists. You do you.