At the very beginning, it's what most people would refer to as the "first draft". First drafts for me are drafts where I just write with one primary idea, but nothing that branch out from it. At the end, I can't say it really sucks. I mean in the general scheme of things, heck yes, it sucks. But if I'm concentrating on where that draft took me, it doesn't suck. Well. Maybe that's pushing it a bit. First drafts tend to be the longest drafts of the novel's history.
After that, there are the "plot drafts". The number of plot drafts last as long as they need to, until my plot and characters have fully developed. This is where I write and fix the plot and scenes in my manuscript, and toy with them to find the perfect one(s). Not really revising them, but trying to figure out what I'm supposed to actually put down on paper. They kill. They sap up my energy and patience like...I don't know, leeches. Either way, I hate them. And I'm sure plot drafts also hate me.
Next, there are "revision drafts", which are about two or three. I start at the beginning of these (in Depravity's case, draft 7 was my first revision draft), thinking of all the things I needed to finish. I've already compiled a mental list of things-I-have-to-fix, starting with holes and writing issues and the like. While revising, I always feel accomplished. I always feel and know that I'm one step closer to my goal (as cheesy as that sounds), and that motivates me. That makes me...happy. Ish. I like revision drafts. These revision drafts also include revisions from my critique partners.
Finally, the last draft is called, well, the "last draft". This is where I finalize everything, reread it until I'm satisfied, and maybe tweak little things here and there. And then...it's usually off to My Documents, where I never see them again.
Depravity has the first manuscript I've ever written that I don't plan to keep away. I'm not quite sure what I'd really do with it, but I'm definitely not going to shake it off. Depravity's the longest novel I've ever written (the other novels, or I should say short stories, I've gone through with complete drafting lasted only a few pages long). I'm not leaving it. Nope.
As you can see, I have a really complicated writing process. This might not be the smartest thing to do, but I feel the most organized and I write the best this way. If I try anything else, and I have tried some other ways, I get confused and everything is reduced to a mess. I have to take one thing at a time when I write.
Strangely enough.
- E
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