How many of you completely re-write a draft.

Move over Meemossis, you are far from alone. I am what I like to call a "bumble writer." For me, a fourth draft is the early stages. It's not a problem though, just a process.

I've finished a bunch of books, and every one has gone differently. Absolutely I've rewritten from scratch. The MS I'm working on now is on its fifth (? I think) do-over.

You are not alone at all.

There wouldn't be a concept of drafts if there wasn't a need for rewrites. I always push through to get the story out, and then come back to fix it for continuity, voice, etc...

I've been there and done that. It isn't fun, but in the end I find it extremely helpful.

Yes, this has happened to me several times. I'll finish an entire manuscript, go back to edit, and decide 'this is unsalvageable, I'm going to start all over again'. It can be painful.

It's my favourite part of writing. Scenes are removed, new ones written and others rewritten. Then when you are finished you know you have a much stronger book.

You're not alone.

Current WIP is the third from-scratch attack at it. This version will stick by and large, but I don't love it. I hope to grow to love it through the drafts, and I hope I can get by with ten or fewer drafts. I'm on draft number two. Wrote a new scene this morning to tuck into a chapter that needed 'more.'

The eleventh draft of my first attempt at a novel, someone called a good first draft.

Then when you are finished you know you have a much stronger book.

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Quoting Gothic Angel because, yes.

I think my writing style still needs work.

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Me too, of course, but reading and taking notes and putting in the time does actually seem to help, so that part is nice. Hang in there.

I wonder if this is more of a pantster thing than it is for plotters. I've never done this - 1st draft stands, then I start editing. Yes, some parts get added to and others deleted, but the structure of the story remains.

I guess I sort of did it twice last year, but both were cases of dropped projects from the past that I decided to revisit and finish. but I don't think that really counts. It's something that stops happening much once you get experience.

Absolutely me. It's how I write. The first draft goes through so many changes that I hesitate to call it that. By the seventh huge edit, several characters have been cut, the plot is much more interesting, and the story moves more smoothly in ways. Once, I cut twenty-four pages from a draft. That was a proud moment. I will note, this is how I write -plays-. Short stories are edited in different ways but it's still so important. Novels I've attempted get entire chapters rearranged and have some plot differences with certain edits, but I'm usually so confident of where I want the novel to go, that I have different expectations.

I hope this helps somehow!

gothicangel said:

It's my favourite part of writing. Scenes are removed, new ones written and others rewritten. Then when you are finished you know you have a much stronger book.

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I also enjoy rewrites, which is a good thing.

[sticks tongue out at Indianroads ]

I have you all beat. I've lost count, that's how many times I've rewritten my first book and I'm doing it again now that my beta readers have weighed in, start to finish hopefully for the last time!!!!!!!!

My excuse is I started out not knowing how to write fiction and it's been seven years last Nov. since I started learning.

I think I'm a decent writer now, even had two short stories published in the interim.

Book still needs polishing. I'm tossing out a few more chapters, which is fine because my word count is 110,000. Besides that trimming, most of the rest is perfecting the remaining chapters.

Like others here, my first drafts are so different than the final version that it’s hard to see them as the same book. It’s generally more of a process of replacing every piece in stages than throwing the draft out and starting over. I’ve only done that once. It’s worth noting, though, that the trashcanned book was also the only one I wrote “properly” — three act structure, outline, wrote from start to finish, the works. It was technically competent but nothing more, and it turned out I missed the actual story I wanted to tell by so many miles that I’m stuck writing the damn thing again, ten years later, because it will NOT leave me alone.

Lesson learned. The way the book needs writing is the way you write the book, no matter how *looks at WIP, sighs* hideously inefficient it may seem.

I draft as many times as necessary to enrich the story and iron out the spelling and grammar errors.

MaeZe said:

I also enjoy rewrites, which is a good thing.

[sticks tongue out at Indianroads ]

I have you all beat. I've lost count, that's how many times I've rewritten my first book and I'm doing it again now that my beta readers have weighed in, start to finish hopefully for the last time!!!!!!!!

My excuse is I started out not knowing how to write fiction and it's been seven years last Nov. since I started learning.

I think I'm a decent writer now, even had two short stories published in the interim.

Book still needs polishing. I'm tossing out a few more chapters, which is fine because my word count is 110,000. Besides that trimming, most of the rest is perfecting the remaining chapters.

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It's the ART of writing that makes it beautiful. If everyone followed the same process, with the same sorts of characters, and the same tried and true story lines - how horribly dull that would be.

indianroads said:

I wonder if this is more of a pantster thing than it is for plotters. I've never done this - 1st draft stands, then I start editing. Yes, some parts get added to and others deleted, but the structure of the story remains.

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That's interesting. (I've tried plotting, but it wasn't right for me.) Do you find yourself doing "drafts" of the plotting stage before you start with the words?

OP - My first draft or two tend to be not just rewrites, they're total re-visioning. I only come to understand what the idea behind the book is on the second or third draft. Which then becomes an almost fresh start. After that though, it's just edits and polishings.

(I don't say it's an efficient way to work, but it keeps me writing which is all that I ask of it )

mccardey said:

OP - My first draft or two tend to be not just rewrites, they're total re-visioning. I only come to understand what the idea behind the book is on the second or third draft.

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Oh, me too - I never know what I'm writing until I've done it. And then I can focus, and go back and do it properly.

lizmonster said:

Oh, me too - I never know what I'm writing until I've done it. And then I can focus, and go back and do it properly.

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Azackly.



And it's so exciting when you find that you're at the actual start of an actual book.

mccardey said:

That's interesting. (I've tried plotting, but it wasn't right for me.) Do you find yourself doing "drafts" of the plotting stage before you start with the words?

OP - My first draft or two tend to be not just rewrites, they're total re-visioning. I only come to understand what the idea behind the book is on the second or third draft. Which then becomes an almost fresh start. After that though, it's just edits and polishings.

(I don't say it's an efficient way to work, but it keeps me writing which is all that I ask of it )

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It is interesting. I pantsed my first novel (unpublished) ... it ended up somewhere around 250 K words and wandered all over the place.

Since then I've modified my process at the beginning of every new project by considering what worked and what didn't in the last. And yes - there are drafts of the plot. I usually know the ending of the story before I figure out how it begins. Then I look at what has to happen between those two points. I start coarse - basically sections (Part 1, 2, etc.) and I look at the people that are playing various roles. Then I take those sections and look at the character's journey, and create rough chapters (just names usually). Finally, I create 8-12 bullet points for scenes within the chapter.

The characters come next (I already know who the major ones are). I write their description, short bios, and phrases they will frequently use.

Finally, I spend several weeks combing through the plot, adding and deleting scenes, etc. Then I start writing, and "gray out" plot points as I work through them.

Oh - but that's not the end.

I write everything in order, and as most everyone here has probably experienced, characters have a tendency to misbehave. Some also disappear and new ones show up. My plot is just a general guide to keep me on course, so, before starting in on the next chapter I'll take a couple hours to go through the plot points I'll be writing to.

That's probably confusing... but the process works for me. We're each unique individuals - so we need to find our own way.

One more thing. (A weird story, but it's kinda related).

I started training in Savate (a French martial art) when I was 5 years old. My instructor was an artist - a painter - and was successful enough that he supported his family that way. He warned me that there will be periods in my training where I felt bad about my performance - as if I were slipping backwards; losing skill rather than gaining it. I'll ever forget his explanation and guidance. He said:

In all art, there are two factors, your eye, and your hand, but they do not progress at the same rate. Your hand will improve first, and when you see your art you will be happy, but then your eye improves, surpassing your hand, and suddenly everything you create looks horrible - and you will be tempted to give up. Don't. In time you will progress through many of these stages. Never give up. Perfection doesn't exist. He mentioned the Mona Lisa - which DaVinci held onto until he died, continually striving to make it perfect. Art must live in the world, so do your best then set it free, and know that others aren't likely to see the imperfections that seem so glaring to you.

katfeete said:

It’s generally more of a process of replacing every piece in stages than throwing the draft out and starting over.

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Meeeee too.

katfeete said:

Lesson learned. The way the book needs writing is the way you write the book, no matter how *looks at WIP, sighs* hideously inefficient it may seem.

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QFT ^

It’s generally more of a process of replacing every piece in stages than throwing the draft out and starting over.

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(etc.) LOL

As a biologist with an affinity for phylogeny, I've often wondered how to convert the forty-two drafts of Novel One into a tree of descent.

Like, I could presumably map the 'parts kept'/'parts discarded' between any particular pair of sequential drafts, but there is likely ZERO overlap between draft one and forty-two. Zero overlap.

Except the character names.

Which some people recommended changing, too.

(LOL. I mean. What is this nonsense?)

I edit as I write, so the final editing process consists of tinkering with the draft. I don't think in terms of different drafts, just rough and polished versions of the original.

More often than I care to lol

My first novella, I finished, scrapped, finished, scrapped, and now I'm toying around with trying it again. I've had to do the same with my first novel (had a clearer idea of who they were and had to throw out SO MUCH STUFF from structure to characters that I just decided to scrap) And most of my short stories that aren't quite there yet get scrapped and later show up in other stories. I usually describe my writing process as a 'tinkerer' approach, but my dad (who is determined never to start over, unless he has to) says it's more like a 'necromantic graveyard'

KBooks said:

Raises hand! And I actually do outline! But as I write, things evolve. And after the whole thing is down on paper it's a lot easier to see what works and what doesn't. So I wind up redoing lots of stuff lots of times.

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Yes, this is me. My current WIP is at about 35,000 words and I've just realised that behind my main antagonist, behind him is an another more dangerous enemy behind him (who is fundamental to the denouement), so when I redraft I will need to give him some more space on the stage (he was only meant to be a one-scene 'threshold guardian').