Young Writers Society

Hi, this could involve either poetry, short stories or even novels (if anybody has finished one) but i just wondered, on average how many drafts do u do on a piece of writing. Like for one of my peoms, i did around 4 to five drafts, but i have this habit expecally with my novels that when i write, i go back like after a chapter i read it and then edit it, and then i kinda lose touch with the story and mostly concentrate on editing and then poof! writers block comes in to play

Just one of my curious moods

Oh, and one more thing, all you budding writers out there, when, where and how long a day do you write? do you follow a daily rountine, or do you write when you feel like it etc??

I normally only ever write one draft of a poem. Poems capture my mood, I like to keep them exactly as they are. Maybe a while after I have written them I'll look back and change something small so it sounds better. I don't change my stories much either, but I'm working on a novel now, maybe this time will be different.

As for writing, I just do it whenever I feel like. Nearly always on the computer in the evenings, sometimes just a quick poem, sometimes for a few hours on my novel. Depends if I can be bothered, I guess. Sometimes I'm awful lazy and just don't want to write.

Haha, I'm terrible at drafts. People usually have to force me to redraft stuff, I usually write something and I'm far too lazy to go back and change it.

How long a day do I write? The question for me is how many hours a month do you write...hardly any. I don't write enough. I have no routine, I do it when I like it, but I'm hardly ever bothered and just don't want to. I enjoy writing but I find it an awful effort.

I write as many drafts as are needed. I am currently on my second of my novel, and I am sure that there are going to be more than that. Probably more like three or four, depending on what pops up during revision.

Writing time, I don't really have a specific time or whatever that I write, though I try to get at least 200 words in every day on my computer.

Boring ol' me... I wish I had some eccentricities...

~GryphonFledgling

Four drafts is the most I've ever done on a story, and looking back, it was still a pretty horrible story. :] So now the only time I do more than one draft is if I really, really see some potential in the story. I should probably do more than one draft with everything no matter what, but I want to waste as little time as possible, you know?

I write a lot. I try to get on my computer and write every evening. I might be on it for two hours, but I'm not always necessarily writing, even though I have a word document opened or something. My writing time consists of me reading, and writing, haha. =D When I'm out with friends or something like that, I always have a little notepad in my purse, and if ideas come to me, I write them down. I guess it sort of feels like I am always writing.

--JF.

Oh gosh... I don't even want to know how many drafts I've done for FREAK. Though I suspect it's more than twelve. O_o

I'm only on my second draft of Firebrand, but about once a week I go through the book and edit chapters. As for when and how long I write, I write when I can and I write all day. Yesterday I wrote from 9:30 a.m. to about 10:00, stopping to watch a movie and eat. Guess how much writing I actually produced? Four pages. Because I was editing as I was writing.

*shrug*
That's just how I roll.

*sigh*

You guys all sound so professional.

I've never written anything more than a first draft. Ok, I write it, and I'm happy with it. It's crap though. So, I edit maybe the first couple chapters and then I lose interest in the book because I realize how bad it stinks!

So, yeah. midnight Darkness, (me NaNo) is almost completely gone.

Save it, someone! I don't want to edit!

Editing makes me feel bad!

BBB

For short stories, it's usually two or three drafts--I write, then leave it alone for a bit, and then come back and rewrite/switch some things around. I'm far more picky with novels. On a few of my NaNo chapters I've done four or five run-throughs just to get things right.

As for time per day...I used to write never, but now it seems I manage about a half hour per weekday, and then with really long weekend sessions that could be anywhere from an hour to six hours. It sort of depends on my mood and what I happen to be writing.

Short answer: like, a bajillion.

Real answer: I have a story that I go through about once a week/month depending on what kind of time I have, and that can result in anything from word choice decisions to whole scenes and plotlines being added/dropped. I'll probably never be satisfied with this story *angers*

I don't write regularly. It's horrible. But if I did, I would probably hate it. And that would be even more horrible. I get ideas when I never have time to expand them, and I expand ideas when I'm no longer enthusiastic about them. So I fall back to my old friend, the eternally-redrafting draft (see above paragraph).

Editing a novel before you're finished is dangerous. In the sense that it then becomes all to easy to get hung up on the parts you've already written, and never go anywhere beyond that.

Editing on the bus or during long car rides is the best!

I do no drafts, I write in the moment, once im done I spell and grammar check it then I post it on on my booksie page. I don't follow a routine I write when I wish, but I try get about an 3 or 4 hours a week.

Yeah that happened to me a lot too. When I started writing a story I decided that I would edit every 5 to 6 chapters that way I could possibly finish and not let editing take over. Sometimes now I would even think about editing until I have finished the whole thing. For my short stories I just want to write them and I don't think of editing them. Also don't let yourself get catch up on the mistakes. Try this I can't remember were I found this but it said "to close your eyes and just write. It doesn't matter if you can't read your writing this way you have let yourself make mistakes and wont get tided up on trying to fix them"

Also I write when I want too. So I keep a story with me or just a notebook and whenever I want to write I write. I manly write and night though it seems that when I get my best ideas.

I'm on first, but often give it out to others who read it, then I rewrite the bits they disliked. I am completly redoing chapter one, that's certain. I find that they are jsut me finding my voice.

Not many. Most of my work stays intact apart from a few tweaks, but not omitting whole chunks. It helps to take a break after you write so you can look back over your piece objectively.

For my most serious piece of writing (a novel I've been working on for the past few years), I'm currently on my fourth major, full-length revision. That's not including the "mini-revisions" where I skim through chunks for typos, out-of-character behaviour and historical inaccuracies, etc. In my big revisions, I look at the whole picture, how the plot fits together, how effective the techniques I've used are.

For short stories, it depends how bad the first draft was. I tend to just write whatever crud flows from my fingers for a first draft. I tell myself I'll edit it later. On average, though, I suppose I go through at least two or three revisions.

I don't write poetry, so I can't really comment on that.

As for my writing routine ... I don't have one. I make word count goals and try to reach them, but I prefer to wait for inspiration to hit so that I can easily get on a roll and write big chunks. Sometimes, though, I just need to force myself to write something. Anything. Every little bit helps