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

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

I start with a first draft, going straight through and leaving nothing out (and I do mean nothing. I'll typically end up cutting about 30% of what I wrote in that first draft). I don't worry about shoddy grammar and horrible word choices or repetitions. I just let my brain spew whatever it wants all over the page. Typically I don't allow anyone to see this draft because it's horrid. It's a lot of thinking on the fly and making things up as I go along. (Though I will note that I don't work this way at all with novels. They're too long and too complicated to leave to chance like this, so outlines kind of take the place of "1st draft".)

For second draft, I go over what I wrote and decide what's necessary and what I did right and what to cut on a macro level, then I sit down and retype the manuscript, working on editing the prose and integrating plot and character changes. Once I've got that done, then I send it out for critique.

After critique, I let the comments stew in my head for a week or two, to see if new ideas crop up. Then I retype again, fine-tuning the prose still more and integrating my new ideas. Depending on how I'm feeling about the story, I might run my new version past another set of critiquers, to see if I pulled off what I wanted to, and if I haven't, I'll do another draft of macro fine-tuning before calling it good and ready to hit the markets. I may or may not retype, depending on how off the mark I feel I am.

Once it's out at market, I try not to look at it again, unless I get a response back that points out a flaw or such. But basically, I don't do any further drafts except at editorial request.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

The re-typing doesn't work for me, (we talked about that a bit back at WFC) but I can see how it's part of your process. Again, if it works, keep it....

You're more disciplined that I am about getting it out. I do hit a point where I'm done revising (unless I get an edit request, which I'm usually happy to do) but it's usually a few versions further out than yours, it seems.

I've also found that for the rough draft, I have to put in everything. I usually do end up cutting some scenes or sub-plots later (after the first draft), but I get them all laid out in the beginning, just in case I need them later ;o)

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I retype because I'm a lazy editor, too prone to settle. Retyping doesn't allow me to be lazy:-)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Interesting way to look at it....I'd probably be looking for some way around that ;o)