Fellow Writers, A Question About Drafts

[Rebel Dynasty]

Hey, guys!

This is something I've been wondering about for quite some time now, so I thought, "Who better to ask than the fair writing community that frequent the DMC forums?"

My question is this: When you refer to the number of drafts your story has undergone, how do you measure it? For example, if you were to say you're on your fifth draft, do you mean the entire story has been revised, start to finish, five times? Or perhaps even if it isn't a finished product, you refer to the number of times what you do have written has been revised?

On that same subject, when does minor editing become revising? Is it about how much more is added to the content, or do you only consider it revision when the content changes, such as the plot deviating from it's original (or previous) course?

I'm genuinely curious, because to be honest, I'm not so sure, myself. I can safely say that I have done both editing and revisions, but the number of either or isn't something I can pin down. I can safely say about the first four or five chapters' worth have undergone revision three times--once on actual paper, and twice in a typed document, since the plot did change, somewhat...but beyond that, I can't even begin to count the amount of times I've doubled the content of a chapter, tweaked a paragraph here or there, subtracted a sentence, added another, changed dialogue, etc. I'm not even sure what to call those tasks--were they merely edits, or did they count as revision, too?

So, that's why I come to you guys, to get your personal/professional opinions on the matter, and to learn of how you approach it when it comes to your own work.

 

[V]

I would say a "draft" in novel terms would be getting ALL chapters roughly down till you have something finished and basically readable = draft 1

then your next draft might be what you do to refine them before presenting to publisher (typos, language edits, other tweaks), and then the next may be what your publisher or potential publisher/editor does with it or asks you to do with it. Mini drafts and small edits are occurring all the time but these are the main stages I think.

 

[Dante's Stalker]

^pretty much what Ieyasu said.
The number of drafts increase by the number of times the manuscript gets rejected and changed according to what the agent/publisher said is market-worthy. I mean, only if you really want to get published, like hardcore, you'd do whatever it takes. A draft generally goes on an entire rewrite of the story.
The rest (edits and proofs and revision) is all part of the crafting process.
If that makes sense.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

Ah, now I think I understand. It's actually far simpler than I figured--so in all technicality, I'm only on my second draft, then...not complete, of course, since I'm still transferring everything from chicken scratch to typed document, but yeah. ^^;

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the answers. ^_^

 

[Shadow]

Oh noes, I'm majorly late to this party! Hope you don't mind me replying.

I don't...erm...I don't measure how many drafts I do, tbh. I only count "drafts" when I've totally rewritten something. (For instance, one of my longest fanfics was entirely handwritten so I counted that as draft one and then, once I typed it up, that was draft two. Rewriting is depressing, hence why I don't get past draft two, usually....) For me, though, the difference between editing and revising comes down to this: when I edit, I just check for spelling, grammar, sentence structure...you know, that sort of thing. Nothing major. In revising, I tend to do all the editing stuff and also delete things, add things, change the order of some other things.

I...guess I'm not really a very technical writer when it comes to fixing up a completed story, because I honestly don't keep track of it. I write until I get bored/stuck, take a break, reread what I've written, find errors, fix them, find more errors, fix those, continue writing the story and repeating the process as necessary. *finds it less stressful* I guess I didn't have as many tips as I thought I did at the beginning of the post...sorry. ._.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

@Shadow

No, no. You're not late; the more input, the better. Advice, methods, personal experiences and progress--anything.

It sounds like we're more or less in the same boat; I haven't really been keeping track of everything, except I have an approximate number of times the first four chapters have been revised--the first time, the plot progression was entirely changed; so I count that as a draft, itself. I get what you mean; having to redo it over and over again is psychologically exhausting, but worth it in the end, I think, once you see the improvement. ^^

 

[Demi-fiend]

What's a "draft"?

I only feel like writing once anyway.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

What's a "draft"?

I only feel like writing once anyway.

Believe you me, I wish it were that simple, lol. >.< If only, right? But then again, I'm glad that the first part of what I've written (so far) is on its second draft; the first was...bad, simply put. ^^; The story as a whole, though, is only on its first write-through.

My inner optimist is hopeful that, given how meticulous I am with certain things, I won't have too much to polish at the end, before looking into publishing.

However, my inner pessimist knows better. :'(

 

[Jak]

well, the way i approach these things are, if there is a significant break/diverge in the story that i'm telling, then those are two different drafts. if there are minor changes that stream in the same creek, then you can just keep that as one draft. because if you measured EVERY DETAIL then you'd end up with 30 drafts

 

[Sparda's rejected son]

For me..hmmmm. Ok lets say I have two chapters right. Their the slob I've written down. I go through them and fix the spellings, and grammar while adding or deleting sentences as I go along. After that I'm usually ready to present it to judgmental strangers on the Inter-web. I'd call it "cleaning up".
I've noticed the more drafts I make, the more my story goes from a "hero and his giant friend save the world from something" to "the hero who is God's second cousin, infused with demon god blood and his ability to control God, who by the way is a stupidly gigantic universe sized giant save the mutli-verse from God's brother's angry wife."
Totally serious too by the way.

 

[lorddemolatron]

I sometimes do drafts, when Im unsure if new chapter of mine Stories would be okay to show for whole Internet community, and well Sometimes I end revriting whole chapters when I think that earlier version i did as Draft is not okay enough.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

@Sparda's rejected son Lol, don't worry--I believe you. Some of the scenes I have typed up for later (the stuff that just hasn't happened yet in the story) has undergone/will be undergoing changes of that nature. It's funny, because these parts, when I wrote them, I was like, "This is better than anything else I've got, right now." When I look at them now, I'm like, "Oh, god...it's...it's awful! Must...fix...everything!" :laugh: Gotta love the process.

@lorddemolatron That's understandable. As long as you continue striving to improve, that's what matters. ^^