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Sometimes, the process can feel like one step forward and two steps back, but each round will strengthen your manuscript.

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It’s more like a series of loops as each one of these stages may require multiple revision rounds. Try not to think of this as a step-by-step process. While it’s impossible to say how many drafts a manuscript takes, it is possible to break the writing process down into stages.

Now that you have a better understanding of what the word “draft” means to you, you can look at the writing process with fresh eyes. So, where do you fall on the drafting spectrum? Keeping it in mind can help you estimate the number of drafts you might need before publishing your story.įrom outline to finished product: the writing process And, if you’re not careful with what you name each file, it may take some detective work to figure out which one is the most recent version. However, you can end up with hundreds of files in a blink. It’s how we end up with draft names like “Final draft” and “Final draft I swear,” and “No really this is the last draft.”įortunately, this means you’ll never lose a detail again and you have complete control over naming conventions. Why would anyone count every change as a new draft? But most writers favor a less extreme version of this approach. Taken to its extreme, this approach to drafting may seem silly.

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But, it’s easy to end up with dozens if not hundreds of files and you’ll have to decide what constitutes a “patch,” an update and a brand new release ahead of time to stay consistent with naming. Here, you can always revisit an older version to review details you want to re-emphasize in rewrites.

Draft 2.0.1: Rewritten rough draft with a minor tweak (or “patch”) to the protagonist’s motivation.

Draft 2.0: Rough draft fully rewritten with feedback from critique partners.

Draft 1.5: Rough draft with some rewrites.

Smaller changes are like patches (the version’s third number) and rewrites might be closer to updates (the second number) rather than a new version release/new draft (the first number).

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It takes cues from software versioning, noting that not every change means a new draft. While this started as more of a joke between writers on social media, it’s a great middle-of-the-road way to think about drafting. Plus, for larger projects like novels, you need to divide your manuscript into parts and have a file system in place to keep track of your revisions. But you may risk losing details from earlier drafts because of the repeat saves.

The advantage here lies in simplicity: you have fewer files to juggle since you’re saving to the same file over and over. Which means when saving a manuscript to a file, you wouldn’t alter the file name until you completely rewrite that chapter, section, or piece.

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By this definition, only full rewrites of a piece count as a true draft. Keep reading for more on how this draft spectrum works.

Middle-of-the-road: The fiction patching method.

It’s impossible to say: “oh, writing a novel will take five drafts.”īecause the definition of “draft” can vary so much, it’s useful to think about drafting on a spectrum: Which means every writer’s version of “the writing process” will look different. There are as many ways to define the word “draft” as there are writers. The biggest problem with breaking down the writing process from first to last draft can be linked back to one little detail: A rose by any other name: What’s in a draft? Unfortunately, you’re more likely to answer “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop?” before knowing how many drafts you’ll need before publication. It’s natural to wonder: how many drafts will it take before my story is ready to publish? For write-to-publish newbies, you might want to know what you’re getting into, especially if you’re working on a large project like a novel. So you’ve decided to write a story and hope to publish it.

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