Process Week Continues, + Birthday Greetings...

[j_cheney]

Happy belated birthday to dotar_sojat and more timely salutations to sarah_prineas and babarnett!

Ah now, on to the boring stuff.

Drafts.
ROUGH DRAFT
Some people produce a first draft. I produce a "rough" draft the first time out.

After I've got a basic idea of the outline of events in a story (and I do mean basic), the setting, and the characters, I do a rough draft. I start at the beginning and try to write straight to the end. Sometimes that doesn't happen. I'll get to a scene I'm sketchy on, and skip past it with just a few notes to hold it's place:

Imogen laid one hand to her breast, nerves suddenly making her stomach flutter. ANNOUNCER?
Mother Hawkes clutched her other hand. The trainers bolted away RACE RACE RACE

ANNOUNCER? RACE RACE RACE?

This is why I don't consider it a first draft. It's not really readable. Sometimes the ending is also sketchy, usually because I know I'll change things later.


FIRST DRAFT
After completing the RD, I usually let it percolate for at least a week. Then I go back and start inserting the things I need to clear up. I will probably have done some research between RD and FD, and usually end up slipping in a couple of extra scenes.

One of the things that's true about my FDs is that the setting and descriptions will still be lightly drawn. I don't worry about those so much here. They'll be fleshed out in the later drafts.

This is where I'll try to get the first readings done, though. To check out the story arcs, and make certain action and dialog make sense.


SECOND THROUGH TENTH DRAFTS
All right, a bit of exaggeration there, but I do like to keep tweaking. The bulk of description gets inserted here, what little description I do use. I'd say that most things go through at least four drafts before I consider them ready to go out.


So, how many drafts do you do? How many before you let anyone see it?

Comments

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

This post has gotten me thinking, and I may have a more detailed response of my own in a week or so...

In the meanwhile, however, I don't have a "novel process" yet because I'm so new to novel writing. I've posted FLocked rough snippets, but I would not want to send a draft out to readers until I've given it another run-through.

I'm not at this point putting in "WRITE CLEVER BIT HERE," but that may change... I have done that with short stories, and I've often found that it doesn't make anything easier for me in the long run. :-/

With short stories? I read a blog post some time back about how word processors have meant the end of true drafts, and I think that's sort of true for me. Individual stories may get anywhere from 10-40 pass-throughs, depending on the needs of the story. The shorter end of things is for stories that come together smoothly and naturally. The higher end is for stories that are more complex or difficult, where I go through checking various elements: is the voice right, does the description match what the VP character would see and comment on, etc.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

My main thing I'm editing for is "do all the ends tie up."

I like neat final drafts, where I have everything taken care of, the plot worked out so that the climax falls at 90% or so....that sort of thing. I like my story arcs to land neatly. But I do look for those things, too (voice, desc). They definitely fall into later drafts, though.