What do you do with your first draft?

brunoshouse · Jan 4, 2007

This might be a silly question, but I am curious. After you finish writing the final edit of your novel, what do you do with your first draft? Do you keep it in a file, or throw it away?

I'm almost finished with my final revision, but I have a hard time disposing of the original (crap) version. I have a nice office, but space is still limited. I can't keep every piece of junk i've written, but I don't have the strength to throw it away.

How about you?

By the way, you guys are great! I have learned so much here.
Bruno

Jamesaritchie · Jan 4, 2007

First

brunoshouse said:
This might be a silly question, but I am curious. After you finish writing the final edit of your novel, what do you do with your first draft? Do you keep it in a file, or throw it away?

I'm almost finished with my final revision, but I have a hard time disposing of the original (crap) version. I have a nice office, but space is still limited. I can't keep every piece of junk i've written, but I don't have the strength to throw it away.

How about you?

By the way, you guys are great! I have learned so much here.
Bruno

Well, most of my first drafts are written in longhand. I throw them away. Any first drafts that happen to be written on a computer soon cease to exist because the first draft morphs into the final draft.

giftedrhonda · Jan 4, 2007

I save an early draft of my stuff. I like to see how I've grown since writing that draft.

Rhonda

Julie Worth · Jan 4, 2007

I keep no paper at all. During writing and revision, I create a new numbered file folder every few days, and put the latest file copy of my WIP in that. My latest book is in file 85. That seems like a lot to keep, perhaps, but the average file is under a meg, so the disk space is minimal--almost nothing when you have several hundred gigs to play with!

While I almost never go back to these old versions, keeping them gives me the confidence to throw out stuff while editing, knowing that it's never really gone.

FergieC · Jan 4, 2007

I kept all the drafts of the first novel I finished, and I'm kind of glad I did (although saying that, I think there were only three of them in total).

With my last one, I just had a splendid time on the 2nd of January ripping up the horrible piles of draft novels, half novels and general crap that had piled up around my rather small flat over the year. It was liberating, and I can now actaully eat dinner at the table. :e2cloud9:

On the other hand, I realised I'd also managed to rip up the last - and only in existence - draft of the new one I'm working on, which had bits in it that have now been cut, and I'm thinking I may want to put back in... :e2smack:

Somewhere, there is a happy medium...

johnzakour · Jan 4, 2007

I just edit it until it becomes the final draft. (Paper? I've never heard of this strange substance...)

Poetic Pen · Jan 4, 2007

Early on, I kept folders of each draft I went through. To this day, they're still packed in boxes in the basement.

I'm getting smarter. Now, I just back up each draft on a disc.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 4, 2007

grown

giftedrhonda said:
I save an early draft of my stuff. I like to see how I've grown since writing that draft.

Rhonda

This is partly why I throw mine away. Way too painful for me to read, and I sure don't want them being passed around after I die.

giftedrhonda · Jan 4, 2007

LOL - ugh, you make a good point about the earlier drafts...haha.

Namatu · Jan 4, 2007

I used to discard, but as I continue to write, I occasionally find myself in need of something I cut out earlier. Now, whenever I make substantial cuts to a manuscript, I save the newer incarnation under another version of the filename. Sometimes I print out a hard copy because I'm paranoid my computer will crash. I also carry around my WIP on a jump drive. Because what if my house burns down and my computer with it?

KTC · Jan 4, 2007

I do edits within my file...never keeping any 'first draft'. I edit and save...thus only ever keeping one copy. If I make an edit, I don't want the original. To be honest, I make very few edits ever. I'm very specific from the start with what I want.

Julie Worth · Jan 4, 2007

Namatu said:
I also carry around my WIP on a jump drive. Because what if my house burns down and my computer with it?

Right! Which is why I keep backups in my car, and in a non-public area of my website server.

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 4, 2007

As with everything (ask my wife!) I am a packrat and rarely throw anything away. I currently have 4 versions of my WIP on my harddrive, each labeled First draft-date, Second draft-date, etc. In addition, any scenes or even paragraphs that I delete from the story are also saved in a file named after whatever the first line is in a folder called Purged Paras.

IrishScribbler · Jan 4, 2007

I keep everything (so far) partly because I'm a packrat, but partly because there may be something I edit out that may work in something else I write. I'm never sure when I'll need it, so I keep it. (Packrat mentality, I know, but I don't care.)

Mud Dauber · Jan 4, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
This is partly why I throw mine away. Way too painful for me to read, and I sure don't want them being passed around after I die.

I'm rather nostalgic about anything written in longhand. And while I agree, I wouldn't want any rough draft/initial thoughts I've scribbled passed around after I die, another part of me thinks it would be neat for my kids to have the chance to uncover a long-lost notebook of mine someday. Plus, handwriting's just cool.

As far as the computer-generated rough drafts, I delete what I'm not happy with as I go along. So, in essence, what's saved on my hard drive (and back-up drive) is all I've got, and I'm fine with that.

Carrie in PA · Jan 4, 2007

I'm like several others above, I just keep editing the same document until it's the final draft. I do have backup copies in various stages, but they eventually get overwritten.

Azure Skye · Jan 4, 2007

I keep it. It's sitting in one of those expandable folders on my shelf right along with the second draft. So far, I've kept all of my writing. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the paper I wrote about Madonna in college. I got an A on that thing too. damn

Jamesaritchie · Jan 4, 2007

Drafts

Mud Dauber said:
I'm rather nostalgic about anything written in longhand. And while I agree, I wouldn't want any rough draft/initial thoughts I've scribbled passed around after I die, another part of me thinks it would be neat for my kids to have the chance to uncover a long-lost notebook of mine someday. Plus, handwriting's just cool.

As far as the computer-generated rough drafts, I delete what I'm not happy with as I go along. So, in essence, what's saved on my hard drive (and back-up drive) is all I've got, and I'm fine with that.

I used to save my handwritten first drafts, and then several things happened that changed my mind. 1. I saw several instances where such material fell into the wrong hands after the writer died. 2. A local university asked whether I'd give them all my drafts, handwritten and typed. 3. The stack of handwritten drafts grew to ridiculous proportions. Somewhere around five feet, if I recall.

I looked at each of these things carefully, and decided I didn't want the first to happen, I didn't want the second to happen, and I didn't have room for the third. Future grandkids and the like will just have to be satisfied with my published writing.

I even destroy my journals every few years.

PeeDee · Jan 4, 2007

I don't generate a lot of paperwork with my novel first drafts. They tend to mostly be in the computer, with snippets of scenes and bits of the book written in journals. Since the journals sometimes have other interesting things in them, I just hang on to them. The maximum number of files on the computer I've ever generated for one work is four.

Early drafts of the novel or short story, though, I kill. It gets horribly confusing when I try to open a file, and I wind up opening three different and incomplete versions before I find the one that I need. That bugs me.

MidnightMuse · Jan 4, 2007

I'm a write-over-it person. My first draft (as a computer file) is simply the bones on which my revisions hang. So the first draft is edited into the second draft, which -- if needed -- becomes the final draft.

I'll print the whole first draft when it's done, so I can sit somewhere comfortable and read it on paper with a pencil in my hand, that's how the editing begins. But the final draft is completed, it's still technically the first draft file - saves space, and prevents confusion. That also keeps me from reliving what might have been an embarassingly sad first draft !

Stacia Kane · Jan 4, 2007

I print out my first draft (which has usually had at least some editing along the way, because when I'm stuck for what happens next sometimes I tinker). I make handwirrten edits all over it.

Then I keep it.

And I'm glad I do, because back when my toddler poured juice on my laptop, I thought I'd lost an entire book and was going to have to re-type the whole thing (I forgot to back it up.)

We ended up getting everything back--and the first thing I did was back that thing up!--but I'm awfully glad I had that paper copy, even though retyping it would have sucked.

ChunkyC · Jan 4, 2007

I write on the computer and keep each draft as a separate file, renaming as I go. I'll start with a new folder and a file called whatever the title is. Then, when I reach The End, I copy the file into a 'drafts' subfolder and rename it by appending the draft number to the name, as in "Bestseller - first draft." Then I continue with the next draft using the original file.

If and when I do sell a novel, once the final draft is done (the one that will see print), I plan to burn the entire folder for that book to one of those small CDs that hold about 210MB. When I finally get the actual book in my hands, after I stop crying I'll put the CD away with a pristine copy of the book and any paper associated with it (handwritten notes etc.).

You never know, someday someone might want to know how the book came to be. I can dream, can't I?

DeadlyAccurate · Jan 4, 2007

Like James, I handwrite and toss. I back up my computer docs every few days to a password-protected directory on our website, and if I'm about to make some changes that I'm not quite sure about, I'll back up just before then, too. That comes from years of computer programming, where if you're about to do something that might break the program, you make sure you can revert if you have to.

Simon Woodhouse · Jan 4, 2007

Each new draft starts off as a copy and paste of the previous one. I keep all the old versions just in case I want to change something back to how it was. I've got lots of old stuff, but so far I haven't mustered the courage to go back and read any of it – I know the first draft of the first thing I wrote is terrible.

Zolah · Jan 4, 2007

I do tend to keep my first drafts - the print-outs which I have revised longhand with red pen. I keep them because I sometimes get a bit discouraged when I'm working through a first draft and I find so many problems that I feel overwhelmed. It motivates and reassures me to get out the first draft of another project and remember that I had to do just as much work the last time, and it's all part of the process.

I also keep them because it feels wasteful to throw away so much paper. Eventually, when I need to print rough copies of something or I run out of paper I end up printing on the back of any sheets which do not have hand-written notes scrawled all over them. Then I'll throw the rest away. So it's not like I hang onto wedges of paper for years.

I do regret throwing some things away, though. The very first project I ever loved, for instance. I had it all printed out, and one day I needed the space and just chucked it. Now I wish I could re-read that, and see if there was something worth saving or looking at again - or just laughing over.

What do you do with your first draft?

Gifted Goofball

What? I have a title?

Bored at work fanatic

Dangerous with a Keyboard

Gifted Goofball

Lost in mental space.

Stand in the Place Where You Live

What? I have a title?

Court Jester

writing on the wall

Write All The Words!

Huh?

Where's my tea, please...?

Midnight Reading

Girl Detective

It's hard being green

Absolutely Fazed

Over the hills and far away