Hey, how many rewrites do you 'plan' to do?

It seems like I'm always two rewrites away from finishing.

Zero. I never rewrite.

A continuous rewrite? So that might equal 0.

I tend not to do major rewrites, unless asked. I have things plotted out pretty well before I begin, and polish earlier stuff as I go. That said, I've rewritten the penultimate chapter of this one novel several times so far, and am not quite sure it flows right yet. But I finally sent the manuscript off to a reader, so we'll see what she says.

As far as creating new drafts, when I type "The End" for the first time, that document gets saved as my first draft. I save, rename, and anything I do after that I consider my second draft (even if it doesn't get substantially rewritten).

I haven't done rewrites like you describe before, but I plan to on my next project.

I've written six books so far, each one the same way: write whatever scene comes to me and keep filling in until the book is done. Then edit, edit, edit. I've been happy with the results, but neither my readers, publisher nor agents have been. Turns out that what I ended up with was a highly edited first draft, no matter how polished. Time to do something different. I hope the first big rewrite (completely from scratch, no copy and paste, no nothing) is the only one I'll need to do. We'll see.

I haven't ever gotten to the point that I'm satisfied something I've written is publishing quality, so I can't say how many rewrites to a finished product. Usually I'll do two or three rewrites before setting something aside. At present, I'm working on a first rewrite of one thing, planning a third rewrite of something else.

Generally, I do as much editing as I can on the first draft (usually two or three passes with both major and minor revisions), and rewrite when it becomes clear that there are major plot or character issues that I can't resolve without changing the structure of the story. I also tend to do a lot of rewriting because I'm still figuring things out as a writer, and by the time I've finished a draft I've learned enough that I know I can do better the next time around.

As many as it takes.

Currently in rewrite mode for the first novel I plan to actually try to get published. The process has so far been like this:

- Write first draft
- Hate the first draft. Write another draft. Call it the second draft.
- Also hate second draft. Write another draft. Call it the third draft.
- Finish third draft and rejoice! Take break for a few weeks.
- Edit/polish up third draft to get it ready for beta readers. Give them the fourth draft.
- Rejoice! Rest for a month.
- Get feedback back from beta readers. Try to not cry even though they mostly had lots of great things to say.
- Really read fourth draft this time. Realize beta readers were right about a lot.
- Muster up strength to do a fifth draft. Mess with the intro for a month because that was one of the comments I got back.
- Realize that I hate the new intro, slap the old intro back (but make it more awesome) and start writing the story using all the feedback I've gotten and brainstorming I've been doing since giving the fourth draft to beta readers. Call this the sixth draft.
- Keep going with sixth draft because it actually genuinely feels right finally.

I like to save all my old work and ideas (even if I hate them) so that's why I end up with so many drafts. I guess you can say I've done five rewrites since the first draft of the story. A LOT has also changed since that very first draft (you can kind of tell most of it happened between draft 4 and 6, which I wrote last year), so it's like I've got a first draft all over again. Things are fresh and untested, so once I'm done draft 6, I'll edit again (and call that draft 7), give to beta readers again, and based on their feedback do another draft (draft 8). I'm overly cautious so I may let them read it one more time and then edit once more before calling it done and sending it to editors. So that's 9 drafts or 8 rewrites in total.

Hope this helps. I kind of just blathered, but it's definitely a process and I don't think there's a "right" way to do it. Like I said, I'm the overly cautious, Type A kind of person, so it takes me awhile to feel like I've got good, completed work.

Best of luck with your process though emanny86!

I've never done a complete rewrite of the whole manuscript, but I usually plan on 3-4 drafts.

First book, heaps and heaps. Second book far, far less. Third book; I'll let you know.

I see a rewrite as something that fundamentally changes the story in the process, where an edit just makes it smoother.

I only intended to rewrite my (first) novel once. Instead, I am now knee-deep in... oh, let's say, rewrite #3? Hah. I don't foresee another rewrite, though. And I expect that future novels will be less of a hassle since I'll have some experience under my belt.

I write something over until I feel proud of it then continue on. So I never know how many re-writes I will end up doing before I'm happy.

leifwright said:

Zero. I never rewrite.

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Same here. I get things the way I want them before I move on to the next page, scene, or chapter. Now, when I get to the point of working with a publisher, I might have to rewrite bits and pieces, but if they want more than that, I probably got the wrong publisher.

I've never "planned" on doing a complete rewrite from scratch after finishing a first draft, but I do tend to edit rather heavily. I tend to do 5 to 6 drafts with the help of beta readers from drafts #2 onward. But my third book has gone through well over 20 drafts. Maybe it's gone through over 30. I dunno. I am pretty frikkin sick of it already. Reading it actually physically turns me off--my eyes glaze over and refuse to focus, my mind no longer wants to digest it. At this point, editing it is a process involving a lot of grinding of teeth and the occasional cry of anguish (hippos tend to swing toward the dramatic). The good news is, this is pretty atypical, even for me. Hopefully you won't have to do nearly as many drafts.

I'm on my second rewrite at the moment.

Layla Nahar said:

A continuous rewrite? So that might equal 0.

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This is me, too. Things occur to me as I write--I might realise something isn't working, or have a brainwave for something that will up the stakes or tension or just make it better. I find it very difficult to move on to the next chapter when I know previous ones need to be changed, so I'm always going back and forward in a WIP.

If I could stop myself doing that, and write an entire draft before I did any editing, I think I would only need one rewrite. Maybe another after beta reading, if they found major problems, but that couldn't really be planned. I'm going to try really hard to do this with my next novel. It's only my third, so I'm still figuring out my process.

I was going to join the chorus of 'as many as it takes', but there haven't been too many rewrite addicts in the thread so I thought I'd chime in with some solid numbers.

I'm still learning a lot and figuring out my craft, so I have projects that are on major rewrite number 8, and another on major rewrite number 5. I do massive overhauls, changing the book entirely from start to finish.

For future projects, I'm hoping to bring down the number of rewrites as I get better at outlining. I'm already finding that my current project needs less rewriting than my past work.

I did one major rewrite on the first book, where I threw away major pieces of the first 6 or 8 chapters, and drastically changed the action. I hope I never have to do that again. I don't plan to.

I've done biggish edits, where I've changed dialog or word choices, on a fairly regular basis.

I always plan to do an editing pass or two, where I look for grammar errors, fix placeholder names and such. But major rewrites? I never plan for those.

Oh, stars, I am a rewrite maniac. Unrepentantly so. Most of my novel length mms have endured at least a dozen rewrites. Hard to tell, because I tend to edit as I go. The best ones have only been improved by the process. I've trunked a few, mostly before I spent too much time revising. But if I see a spark, I'll trunk it until I get an idea how to make it work. That said, I'm getting better at first drafts...but I will always revise.

Added: I *am* planning a complete revision this summer, of my debut novel. Rights revert to me in July, and I have plans for its second edition. Since the original is already over 100K, it's going to be a big project.

I don't enumerate "rewrites" or "drafts". I try to fix things I see when I see them. And I fix a lot.

caw

Yes, what Blacbird said; it's all the first draft until I say it isn't.

I always know there will be at least one big rewrite. My first drafts are more like cluttered notes - sort of like gathering all the story materials into one spot, and sorting them into roughly related piles, but not constructing anything rigorously. After the first rewrite, changes tend to be more localized, although whole chapters will still sometimes appear and disappear.

My current MS is on its first rewrite. I expect there to be one more extensive edit after that's done. My deadline is October, and I expect there to be edits after I've turned it in, but hopefully not massive structural ones.

shadowwalker said:

Same here. I get things the way I want them before I move on to the next page, scene, or chapter. Now, when I get to the point of working with a publisher, I might have to rewrite bits and pieces, but if they want more than that, I probably got the wrong publisher.

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This is the way I work too...I can't seem to move along before the previous chapter is right. As for you who write like this and have gotten deals - did you still need to rewrite a lot?