How Long Do You Let a Draft Sit?

I'm one of the divers too. Dive right in and keep editing until I'm happy. (After I've pulled most of my hair out.)

I think that when you are first beginning to learn the craft there is more to benifit from letting a project sit. When I wrote the first draft of my WIP two years ago, I was an absolute beginner. I also thought it was the greatest novel ever written. I shudder to think of the horrors in that draft, lurking in a lonely folder in my computer. The more you write, the more you learn and the more you learn, the better you can make a piece. Perhaps more experienced writers may not need to wait so long in between the first draft and revision but it wasn't the case for me.

ebennet68 said:

I think that when you are first beginning to learn the craft there is more to benifit from letting a project sit. When I wrote the first draft of my WIP two years ago, I was an absolute beginner. I also thought it was the greatest novel ever written. I shudder to think of the horrors in that draft, lurking in a lonely folder in my computer. The more you write, the more you learn and the more you learn, the better you can make a piece. Perhaps more experienced writers may not need to wait so long in between the first draft and revision but it wasn't the case for me.

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I knew my first book was horrible from the get-go. I still edited it anyway, and it was hugely helpful to let it sit. Nine books later, I still get a ton of benefit from the wait. Still, everyone's different.

ebennet68 said:

I also thought it was the greatest novel ever written. I shudder to think of the horrors in that draft, lurking in a lonely folder in my computer.

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Same here. I thought my first novel was amazing. Then I looked back at it after a few months of straight agent rejections... *shivers* It was not pretty...

I really believe it's good, at some stage in the revision process, to step away from your MS. Lots of books go through 3-4 drafts and sure, you might dive into the first coupla drafts one after the other, that's what I tend to do. But maybe on the final drafts (and maybe this is when your beta sees it anyway so you naturally get a break from it) it's definitely worth a month or more away from it IF you're not working to deadline.

And definitely for those writers out there who haven't quite snagged an agent or publisher (and want to), taking a few weeks away from your drafts might give you that breakthrough you need 'cos seriously, it can make a world of difference. This is borne out by the fact a LOT of successful published writers advise space away from drafts. This might be one of the reasons they're successfullypublished, ya know? Of course, this isn't always possible once under contract but if you haven't got that publishing deal yet, why not try it?

I don't take time away from a draft. Strike while the iron is hot, and all that. I actually find it detrimental to my writing process to step away. When I'm fresh out of the first draft, my head is filled with the story and how to play with scenes, to flesh things out. I know exactly where I'm going. If I step back and let it sit for a few weeks/months, I lose all of that.

The more you write, the more you are going to find that just because a lot of people advocate doing things a certain way, it doesn't mean that that method is going to work for you. You have to decide what works for you and what doesn't, and keep doing that.

It's lovely for the people that can get fresh perspective after being away from a manuscript for weeks and months, but for some people, that's an exercise in frustration. Case in point - when I first started writing, I did this. I'd finish a draft and set it aside for six months and work on something else. Just like Stephen King told me to! Except when it came time to go back to that book, I'd lost all enthusiasm for it. There was always something shiny and new to work on, right? Several years later, I had a trunk full of first drafts and no polished works. It's a nasty habit you can get into, and one that's even harder to break when you start doing it. Now, I revise as soon as I'm done, and I make sure it's as finished as I can make it before I put it away.

And I still haven't gone back to all those first drafts.

ebennet68 said:

I think that when you are first beginning to learn the craft there is more to benifit from letting a project sit. When I wrote the first draft of my WIP two years ago, I was an absolute beginner. I also thought it was the greatest novel ever written. I shudder to think of the horrors in that draft, lurking in a lonely folder in my computer. The more you write, the more you learn and the more you learn, the better you can make a piece. Perhaps more experienced writers may not need to wait so long in between the first draft and revision but it wasn't the case for me.

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It's possible, and certainly true for some writers. I sold the first draft of my first novel because I had no choice. The agent needed it right then because the publisher needed a novel to fill a particular slot right then, so I had to write it in three weeks, get it to the agent, regardless of what shape it was in.

But it sold, and needed no revision at all, so it worked out fine. Which is probably why I never developed the habit of waiting.

I sometimes believe that new writers are the ones who shouldn't do multiple drafts, and who shouldn't wait. For new writers, I've found waiting may clear up typos and the like, but seldom makes a story or the characters any better.

They often rewrite and edit out the parts that make the novel good. It's a case of first instinct being write, and second guessing during the rewrite/editing phase being wrong.

I tend to let a novel sit while it's with beta readers, so about 4-6 weeks. But that's after one or two revisions and several editorial passes on my own.

Long enough to save it and arrow back to the beginning.

thethinker42 said:

Ditto. I usually start editing the day after I finish a draft. (Though I do some editing as I go, too.)

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Thirding this. I'm kind of a slow writer, so by the time I finish at 15k novella, I can go back and start like it's fresh

I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I wait 1 month+ before revising. I've found that if I go back right away, I miss all sorts of plot holes and messed up arcs etc. I've just written it, so it all makes perfect sense to me. I read what was in my head, not what's on the page. I forget about the story with time, and so then all the things that make no sense in the story are quite obvious when I read it again.

Of course, I'm no professional, and if I ever do get published, I probably will have to adopt a different strategy in order to meet deadlines.