Young Writers Society

I'm muddling through the fifth draft of my novel right now, and I've been thinking about how my perspective on drafting has changed as I've developed as a writer. Once upon a time, it was a huge victory just to get through one draft of something. And it still is! But I never used to think about the next draft, and even less did I think about the draft after that.

But it's a little different for every writer and for every piece.

For example, the last short story I had published - Warm Enough to Swim - only took me two drafts (plus a sort-of-third when the editors asked me to make an adjustment to the ending) because it just came out so RIGHT in the first draft I didn't have that many changes to make. But that's rare. I have another short story I've written four or five drafts of that is still getting rejected and I'm not exactly sure what to do about it.

My novel, like I said, is going into it's fifth draft. And that's fifth FULL draft, like I wrote 100k+ five times in a row. I thought it was done after four, but a year of querying proved otherwise and I wasn't ready to give it up, so I'm giving it one more draft.

But when it comes to poetry, which I exclusively write during NaPo, I almost NEVER write more than one draft. But at the same time, I don't consider myself a poet and I'm not trying to publish any of those poems. For me, right now, I feel satisfied and "done" with a poem after I've finished writing it. I get a lot of enjoyment out of writing poetry, but I don't get the same enjoyment out of improving my poems like I get out of improving my fiction.


I'm curious: How many drafts does it take for you to feel like something is finished? Developing a sense of when something is "done" (not perfect or flawless, but done) is a big part of developing as a writer. So let's hear it!

I'm working on draft... 37? of Cat Steps, when you count all the partials. Those partials mostly all went over 50k, as well, with my death number around 60k. Once I hit that point I felt the story was so wrongly wrought I had to start over from scratch. All told I've put in about two million words towards it.

In terms of start to finish drafts, I'm on my second. I am going to assume 2 more completed drafts, at minimum, just because this middle section keeps changing and I am not sure I like how it's turning out.

I haven't written much else in that time (ah, my lack of flexibility is making other genres feel like doors creaking in crypts), but when it comes to roleplays the scenes usually changed shape 5 times before they became solidly entrenched canon that were referenced in later scenes and had a timeline built off them.

I'm working on the second draft of a fanfic and I honestly don't know if there'll be a third. It's just meant for fun and practice, so I personally don't care how polished it gets lol

My first feature script, Homecoming, is currently on draft ten, but I don't think I'm anywhere close to being "done". I haven't touched in a while, but I certainly plan on revisiting it in the future.

My second feature, The Village, is currently on draft three, and again, I don't feel is anywhere close to being done.

My thesis film also had two rewrites, as well as more minor changes to scenes and dialogue, so I'd say what we shot was probably draft four or five. Other short scripts I write two to three drafts before I shoot, and after everything is cast,
dialogue, scenes, etc will change by necessity.

I generally don't rewrite my poetry or short stories. Sometimes I will, but ever since I started focusing almost exclusively on scriptwriting when starting college, that's what's gotten the most of my attention.

But the writing process for screenwriting is pretty analogous to writing novels or short stories. The technique may differ, but it's still writing, rewriting and everything else that comes with it.

okay but nothing I've written is finished

I'm on Draft Five of Unruly and honestly I'm starting to feel like I'm fighting a losing battle - I still can't even see the shape of the story I want, it's this amorphous blob that eventually I hope I can sculpt into something but the shopping and changing and twisting back on myself isn't helping. So. Draft Five. And it may as well be Draft One.

Silk was easier. Even though it's not done yet, I've just finished my second draft and I think that I accomplished what I set out to do with that draft. I know some of what I need to do in Draft Three already and I'm hoping by the time Draft Three is done, I'll be able to see the end, even if there are more drafts to come after that.

I have never finished anything to the "done" level of completion. I have never set down my pen and backed away, content that this is the story I was trying to tell.

I am an obsessive perfectionist. This is my problem.

One of my novel projects has existed in 4 or 5 different forms over the last 7 years. I've gotten -- I think 20k in at the farthest -- so over 7 years I've probably written 30k for it total, discarding here and deleting there.

Most of them, actually, I hit 20k in the first draft and quit. 20k is my death number, where everything is wrong and I'm aware that nothing is happening how it's supposed to -- not in any finished novel, not even in a first draft -- and I give up and delete it and start fresh again.

This is not a good thing, for anyone reading this and wondering.

One year I got halfway through my NaNo and realized that nothing happened in the 50k words I'd written (and yes, it was supposed to be 100k -- I'd hit 50k by the 15th). So I stopped.

I've grown incredibly tired of writing first drafts. It drives me crazy how bad they are. I want to have the book I thought of in my hands, bound and embossed, and the farther I get into a first draft the more it looks like that's never going to happen.

I can't even finish short stories any more. Once they're done, they're bad -- while I'm still working on them, I can stop in the middle and delete them whenever I wish.

How many drafts? Too many.

Most of the time? One draft. It doesn't matter if it's an SB post, poem, or short story - after one draft, beyond a few touch-ups here and there, it's done. Granted, writing and editing are very hand-in-hand to me, so chances are I'll be editing around the same time I'm writing. That leads to some fairly high-quality work, though I might also overthink what I'm doing and write extremely slowly (because haha paranoia and a feeling of inadequacy).

If it's something that's going to be published, though, I like to create more drafts. Obsessive as I am, that might lead to 5-10 drafts for a single essay, particularly when I'm working with beta readers. Admittedly, later drafts are generally tiny changes to clunky phrases. It's just, I want to be sure it's as perfect as it's going to be, so that it can be published. Even if I liked what I wrote to begin with.

My oversized, WIP novel, Blessed Are the People, is currently in its first and second draft. As in, the first 15-20k words or so are the condensed version of a 30k monster I wrote for NaNoWriMo's YWP in 2016, and everything else is original. However, BAtP borrows heavily from another novel I tried to write in the past - TWotTC - which itself stole from my first novel project - TCoN (I will never explain these acronyms). TCoN had about three drafts, and TWotTC one (two chapters). Hence, more accurately, BAtP is in its fourth and fifth draft. And yes, there are almost certainly going to be plenty in the future, given how unwieldy the story is right now. I just want it finished, so I'm charging ahead anyways. >.>

tl;dr: 1 draft, unless it's a bigger project or for a specific purpose