Drafts to Done

I often get asked how many drafts a writer needs to do when writing a book. This is somewhat of a difficult question because writing is not about quantity but quality. However, no serious writer gets it right in just one take. You have to have the patience to review your work several times. Some authors suggest 10 drafts or more. I'm not sure that's really necessary, but it on your process and how you work.

When I'm writing for myself this is my process:

First draft: Just write to get it all down.

Second draft: Go back and smooth it out, add layers such as descriptions of people and places, personality traits, if it's in a real place maybe add names of landmarks, perhaps develop a subplot or side story, take a second look at dialogue, make it more believable or real.

Third draft: Let a writing group or trusted friend see a copy of the second draft and give constructive criticism. Remember that this is something you probably don't want your mom or significant other to do because the point of constructive criticism is not to hear 'that's nice dear," it's to get an objective viewpoint and make your work stronger. If your reviewer doesn't give you anything but praise, you haven't had an honest review. They don't need to be nasty or mean about it, but your reviewer should be willing to point out things that maybe weren't clear, dialogue that didn't make sense or sound real, or anything else that might occur to them. These people are not necessarily proof readers, but if they catch an error or two let them. Remember, don't get defensive, you are free to take or leave what they tell you. The point is to make your manuscript better. Then take the feedback and incorporate it into the book.

Fourth draft: Go over the book again with a critical eye. Make sure subplots are tied up as well as the main plot. Have you answered all hanging questions? Refine the dialogue again. Read it out loud to make sure it sounds real. Ask yourself if your characters would really react and act the way you've written them. Is the story believable? Editors have often told me the truth is no defense in writing. In other words, just because it happened in real life doesn't make it believable. Sometimes there are things that are just so crazy, that they are difficult for the reader to believe. In this case, you may have to do a little extra explaining to make something work. For example, if you're telling a story in which someone flies, they can't just start flapping their arms and take off. You must explain that they took a special potion or were genetically engineered to do it, or that just the way everyone on their planet is, etc.

Fifth draft: Run your manuscript past another reviewer or set of reviewers. Listen to their comments and make any needed changes. Let it sit for awhile just to give yourself some distance.  Maybe a week or two, then come back, look it over again and fine tune it. Do a spell check, run it by your proofreaders. At this point, you may be ready to submit it. If not take more time to make needed changes.

When you finally become lucky enough to catch the eye of a publisher or agent, understand that while your manuscript is the best it can be at this point in time there will be more rounds of editing and drafts. The powers that be might want a new character added, or a few new scenes. Maybe they'll decide that it should be set at the beach instead of in the mountains. If it's non-fiction, they might want more explicit details in places or an extra scene to bridge a time gap. Sometime they want to change the title, which means key points in the book must be changed. You never know what they might want. Just be prepared to do additional drafts.

When I write for clients, I still use the same process. The only difference is they are not aware of it because I am not giving each draft back to them. My job is to make writing a book easy for them. They don't need to do the heavy lifting, so I don't bother them with every little detail. They don't need to see my first rough note marked up draft--which might not make a lot of sense to them anyway. Instead, they see things at the reviewer stages. When writing for others keep the process clean, simple and as streamlined as possible.

Finally, no matter if you're writing for yourself or another, always work from the same file. Don't pass multiple copies out to multiple reviewers or you will create a nightmare. You'll not only have to try to combine all the corrections, comments into one and inevitably miss something, but you'll drive yourself crazy thinking you've made a correction only to find out it's not there.  It wastes valuable time and energy. So work from one copy and give each generation of the draft a distinct new name to avoid mix-ups.