Writing Tip: Drafts & Rewrites - How to Make the Most of Them

Too many new writers get hung up on rewriting their manuscript. I understand how they can get almost lost in the maze of “what to do and when to do it.” Here is a method I have developed to help me through that beginning maze of getting a story off-the-ground.

None of this is carved in stone as a must do. This is just a way I have found to save time, effort and above all, frustration. There is an order to how I organize and do my drafts and redrafts.

First Draft

The first draft of anything I am writing is where I turn off my editing and organizing switch. I literally do not edit anything. As much as is possible, I make sitting at my computer a “Stream of Consciousness” exercise, with no filter. I simply think and type.

I have an idea about the story and/or plot and I just let my mind and fingers go to almost anything.
It’s amazing what kind of ideas you can come up with when you let your mind go.
I try to put them in a story type order, but I don’t spend much time doing it.

After I got every possible idea down in my computer, I let everything sit for a day or so.

Second Draft

In the second draft, or editing, I take those “Stream of Consciousness” thoughts and begin sorting. It’s here that I begin to remove some of those ideas. At the end of the second draft, the story, wither a novel, a short story of even a scene in a story, comes into shape.

Third Draft and On

In the third editing draft, and on, I refine.

Here is where the writing begins.

Characters are developed, expanded or contracted.
The plot line becomes complex.
Those delicious plot twists grow out of these rewrites.

In my opinion, it's in editing draft #3 and higher where the real writing begins.

I may think about the description of a room or a person’s clothing, for an hour or longer. If just right image is needed for that part of the story, I may work on it for a day or even longer. I do this to get just the right mood or image that I need for that section of the story.